Gavin Newsom has mocked President Donald Trump’s ongoing meltdown over a jammed escalator at the U.N. with a taunting clip from inside the president’s famed Fifth Avenue tower.
Trump has cried sabotage after he and first lady Melania were forced to walk up the escalator at the U.N. headquarters in New York when it malfunctioned ahead of his big speech on Tuesday.
The 79-year-old president said “the people that did it should be arrested” and demanded an “immediate investigation” in a Truth Social post Wednesday.
“It’s amazing that Melania and I didn’t fall forward onto the sharp edges of these steel steps, face first. It was only that we were each holding the handrail tightly or, it would have been a disaster,” he wrote.
But Newsom posted a video on X on Thursday suggesting Trump’s prized Manhattan skyscraper may have its own escalator issues, alongside a trolling caption echoing Trump’s tantrum.
“A REAL DISGRACE. Escalator was broken at Trump Tower today,” the California governor wrote, sharing a video of two Trump Tower escalators at a standstill.
A REAL DISGRACE. Escalator was broken at Trump Tower today.I’ve launched an investigation into this matter. pic.twitter.com/BXcs0IHpTA
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 25, 2025
“I’ve launched an investigation into this matter,” added Newsom, who was in New York this week for Climate Week.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Trump Organization for comment on Newsom’s post.
Trump Tower’s gilded escalators entered political lore more than a decade ago, when Trump descended them to declare his run for president on June 16, 2015.
On his Weekly Show podcast Thursday, Jon Stewart quipped that, given the president’s history with escalators, it was only fitting that the U.N. escalator breakdown would play such a “pivotal” role during Trump’s visit to the headquarters.
While the president has cast the incident as part of a larger conspiracy against his General Assembly address, which was also marred by a failing teleprompter, the U.N. indicated that the flub was courtesy of Team Trump.
The organization issued a statement Tuesday saying Trump’s own videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety mechanism at the top of the elevator, citing a readout of its central processing unit.
Moreover, a person with knowledge of the situation told the Daily Beast that the U.N. was not running the teleprompter for Trump’s speech, suggesting that the president’s team did not arrive with enough time to make sure their equipment was plugged in and ready to go.
Newsom previously seized on “Escalatorgate” to mock Trump, with his press office commenting on the gaffe in an X post imitating Trump’s rambling, all-caps Truth Social rants.
“DOZY DON WAS DEFEATED BY THE ESCALATOR, POOR GUY!” Newsom’s press office wrote. “THE ENTIRE WORLD IS LAUGHING AT THE LOW IQ ‘PRESIDENT.’ NEXT STOP: THE BEST ROOM AT MEMORY MEADOWS RETIREMENT RESORT. TYLENOL INCLUDED. ENJOY YOUR STAY, DON! — GCN.”
Newsom—who has spent months building his profile by ridiculing the president, his policies, and his frequent social media rantings—wrote in another X post, “I only walk up escalators because that’s what REAL MANLY MEN do.”
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