DONALD Trump’s major speech to the United Nations annual general debate got off to a rough start when the teleprompter stopped working.
The US president was speaking at the UN for the first time since he returned to office for a second term.
Shortly after the speech began, Trump joked that all he’d got from the UN was a broken escalator and malfunctioning teleprompter.
He told the audience gathering in New York: "I feel very happy to be up here with you … and that way you speak more from the heart. I can only say that whoever's operating this teleprompter is in big trouble.”
"All I got from the United Nations was an escalator that on the way up, stopped right in the middle," he continued.
"If the First Lady wasn't in great shape, she would have fallen. But we're in great shape, we're both in good shape, and then the teleprompter didn't work, these are the two things I got from the United Nations."
Elsewhere during a long, rambling speech, the US president claimed he has ended "seven unendable wars" and hit out at the UN itself.
He claimed the UN was “funding an assault on Western countries and their borders”.
He said: “Europe is in serious trouble. They have been invaded by a force of illegal aliens like nobody’s ever seen before.”
Trump went on: “I look at London, where you have a terrible mayor, terrible, terrible mayor, and it’s been changed, it’s been so changed.
“Now they want to go to Sharia Law. But you are in a different country, you can’t do that.
“Both the immigration and their suicidal energy ideas will be the death of Western Europe if something isn’t done immediately. This cannot be sustained.”
It comes after Trump said on Monday that there has been a “meteoric rise” in cases of autism and suggested without evidence that Tylenol – called paracetamol in the UK – is a potential cause.
He said the painkillers should not be taken during pregnancy, suggesting pregnant women should “tough it out”, and also raised unfounded concerns about vaccines.
The president’s comments have been roundly criticised by autism campaigners and scientists in the UK.
Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, outgoing chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, warned of the danger posed by Trump’s comments.
“I am really worried that this rise of misinformation from many different parties, including the government in the United States, does undermine confidence globally,” he told BBC Radio 4’s World at One.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) issued a statement on Tuesday confirming there is “no evidence that taking paracetamol during pregnancy causes autism in children”.
