President Trump’s speeches are well-known for the times when the 79-year-old veers off into unexpected topics mid-sentence.
The first meeting of the Board of Peace took place today, where the president addressed numerous officials who traveled to the US capital from different countries.
During his speech, Trump acknowledged several individuals and made a special mention of Santiago Peña Palacios, the president of Paraguay.
“[He’s a] young, handsome guy. It’s always nice to be young and handsome. Doesn’t mean we have to like you,” he remarked.
In an unusual twist, the president continued: “I don’t like young, handsome men. Women, I like. Men, I don’t have any interest.”
That was quite a tangent…
In another instance of diversion, Trump referred to the viral episode at the United Nations’ headquarters in New York where an escalator stopped unexpectedly just as he and his wife Melania stepped on it.
At the time, Trump and his administration did not find the incident amusing, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt demanding that it be ‘investigated immediately’.
Despite this, the President now seems to have a sense of humor about the situation.
He mentioned that the Board of Peace is collaborating closely with the UN and that he maintains a good relationship with them — except for the escalator incident in September.
Trump elaborated: “I’ve had a good relationship [with the UN] other than when, at my last speech, they did turn off my teleprompter. I got up there, my teleprompter didn’t work.
” […] First I had an escalator that stopped. You know that it’s going up. Boom. It’s lucky that my movie star first lady in front of me because I put my hand on a certain part of her body and I was able to stop my fall.”
Reflecting on the incident, Trump noted that Melania was ‘right in the proper location for me’.
He then talked about Melania’s ‘number one’ film, aptly titled Melania. Though it was not well-received by critics, the documentary about the first lady holds an impressive 98 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
While Trump’s team once claimed that the escalator was deliberately stopped, the UN explained that it halted abruptly due to a safety mechanism likely triggered by his videographer who was behind the president and first lady, as reported by BBC News.