If Looks Could Kill: Melania Trump Aims Her Shady Side-Eye At Donald During Awkward Moment

For those who know comedian Mitch Hedberg, one of his jokes is that "an escalator can never break, it just becomes stairs," via TikTok. However, for Donald and Melania Trump, who, despite any rumors, are still together, it seems as though the escalator did break on them. Donald told the U.N. Deputy Secretary General about the mishap that he and Melania had while arriving at the U.N. General Assembly, saying, ""The escalator just broke down... with us in the middle of it," per X (formerly known as Twitter).

We're sorry, of course, to hear that Melania and Donald had to deal with what must have been a startling moment and clearly a stressful one from Donald's tone. But we're thankful that they took the escalator since it gave the world a chance to see Melania giving Donald quite the look. As they start up the escalator and it stops, Melania is caught looking back at Donald. It could be just an innocent glance, but it doesn't seem to be showing any love or affection for Donald at all. It's not a huge surprise; Melania is an absolute master of the sour facial expression, and she doesn't always hide it all that well.

Whatever the reason for her look, Melania's expression was noticed on social media. One person on X mused that perhaps Melania thought it was Donald who stopped the elevator. Another person joked about the state of Melania and Donald's marriage, which some have thought is more transactional, by saying that she gave him that look because "clearly, walking up stairs wasn't in the contract." And one X user posted, "I think she's saying, 'I told you they don't like you, but you didn't believe me.'"

Despite the escalator mishap, Donald and Melania Trump made it through safely, though they were perhaps a bit annoyed. But that wasn't the only technical hiccup for Donald at the U.N. The teleprompter was broken for his speech. Some have theorized that perhaps these two things weren't just unfortunate coincidences, but that someone was sabotaging Donald's visit to the U.N.

Karoline Leavitt, who seems to have undergone a MAGA friendly makeover since becoming press secretary, is certainly taking the escalator incident seriously. She posted on X, "If someone at the U.N. intentionally stopped the escalator as the President and First Lady were stepping on, they need to be fired and investigated immediately." She shared an screenshot of an article that reported that some staff members had joked about stopping the escalator as Donald got on.

As one would expect, that also got quite the reaction on social media. One person quipped in response to Leavitt's post on X, "So the escalator was de-escalated, causing potential escalation?" Others thought it would be funny if it had happened on purpose while some thought it presented a security risk. And one Donald/MAGA supporter chimed in to say he was someone who works with escalators, and that it probably wasn't anything nefarious or done intentionally by anyone on staff. We may never know the real story, but we'll always have that image of Melania's side eye to her husband.