When Protocols Fail World Leaders at the United Nations

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It is not easy for the meetings of the United Nations General Assembly to deviate from strict protocol rules; every movement is calculated, every minute on the leaders' schedule is accounted for, and every route is subject to complex security procedures.

However, what protocol sometimes cannot control is an escalator that stops, or a convoy that blocks a street, or a teleprompter that decides to malfunction at the wrong moment.

This is what happened to U.S. President Donald Trump during the General Assembly meetings in September 2025, when the escalator stopped while he and his wife Melania were ascending to the United Nations headquarters, prompting the couple to continue on foot.

The irony did not stop there, as Trump faced another problem when the teleprompter malfunctioned at the beginning of his speech, stating that the person responsible was "in big trouble," before later suggesting the possibility of sabotage, although the United Nations clarified that the teleprompter was under the management of the U.S. side.

While Trump was trying to reach the General Assembly hall, French President Emmanuel Macron found himself in an equally strange situation, as Trump's motorcade closed off one of Manhattan's streets.

Macron called Trump on the phone after getting stuck in traffic, before continuing on foot. Thus, the security measures that were supposed to facilitate the movement of presidents became an obstacle for one of them.

Earlier, former U.S. President George W. Bush found himself in a more personal than diplomatic situation, after a Reuters photographer captured a photo of a note he wrote during a United Nations meeting asking his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice if he could take a break to go to the bathroom.

The photo spread widely, revealing for a moment a daily aspect of a president's life amidst a highly formal meeting.

But some of the strangest scenes date back to the Cold War era. In October 1960, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev became associated with the famous shoe story, after it was said that he took off his shoe and struck the table in protest of a speech by the Philippine delegate.

However, the United Nations itself indicates that the details of the incident are disputed, as the recordings do not definitively prove that the shoe was actually used to bang on the table, although historical documents confirm that he took it off, waved it, and hit his desk with his hand.

In the same year, Fidel Castro recorded a more consistent figure than the shoe story, as he remained on the podium of the General Assembly for 269 minutes, delivering the longest speech in the organization's history, despite the recommended speaking time for speakers being only 15 minutes.

As for Muammar Gaddafi, he delivered a speech in 2009 that lasted about 98 minutes, during which he criticized the United Nations, the Security Council, and many international issues, in a speech that became one of his most attention-grabbing appearances in the organization.

In 2006, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took the podium a day after George Bush and said that "the devil" was there, adding that the smell of sulfur was still lingering in the place, in one of the most famous phrases uttered from the General Assembly podium.

However, not all surprises were made by presidents. In 2021, a dinosaur appeared using computer-generated imagery inside the General Assembly hall as part of a UN campaign to raise awareness about climate change, addressing leaders about the danger of human "extinction" if they did not act to confront climate change.

Even the diplomats themselves have found a way to break the monotony. For nearly four decades, the work of the Third Committee sometimes concludes with a "poetic lecture" in which representatives from various countries recite satirical poems about the most famous negotiations and the positions they have encountered.

In 2024, the United Nations documented poetic contributions from representatives of Britain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Tunisia, and others.

Thus, behind the heavy doors and strict protocols, United Nations meetings retain a more spontaneous side, where a stopped escalator, a closed procession, a lost shoe, a lengthy speech, or even a dinosaur can extract a moment of levity from one of the most serious arenas of global diplomacy.