Stephen Colbert unpacked President Donald Trump’s “campaign of vengeance against his enemies” on Thursday night’s Late Show, including “the one foe who refuses to take him up,” the United Nations escalator.
On Tuesday, ahead of his speech at the U.N. General Assembly, the president found his ascent literally foiled by a stopped escalator, then by technical issues including a failed teleprompter. Days later, Trump accused the U.N. of “triple sabotage,” hitting his social media platform Truth Social with a lengthy post claiming “three very sinister events! This wasn’t a coincidence…”
The White House opened an investigation with the Secret Service and demanded the U.N. do the same, with U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric reporting that the escalator “had stopped after a built-in safety mechanism on the comb step was triggered at the top of the escalator,” likely caused by Trump’s own videographer. As for the teleprompter? Dujarric said in a statement for the U.N., “We have no comment since the teleprompter for the U.S. president is operated by the White House.”
As for the alleged “third sabotage,” Trump claimed attendees “couldn’t hear a thing” if using the U.N. Interpretation System earpieces. A U.N. official responded in a statement: “The sound system was designed to allow people at their seats to hear speeches being translated into six different languages through earpieces.”
It’s a lot to unpack, dissect, and examine. It would require a person wearing many hats to investigate. At least three hats.
So, on The Late Show, Colbert donned three Sherlock Holmes hats and three Sherlock Holmes pipes as the characters of “Escalator Investigator,” “Teleprompter Investigompter,” and “Ineffective Acoustics Detective Sleuth-Fix” to get to the truth of the matter.