Guess what? Stuck in a jam, Macron calls Trump

Who do you call when you’re stuck in a traffic jam? For Emmanuel Macron, the obvious answer was Donald Trump.

The French President, who is in New York City for the United Nations General Assembly meeting, found himself trapped behind the US presidential motorcade on Monday night.

He got out of his car to speak with a New York Police Department officer, saying he had 10 people with him and they were trying to get to the French Embassy.

Video footage shows the officer apologising and explaining that “everything’s been frozen”.

“There’s a motorcade coming right now, that’s why. I’m sorry,” he tells Macron.

Macron, who remained friendly despite his frustration, replied: “If you don’t see it, let me cross. I negotiate with you.”

With numerous cameras and phones pointed at him, the French President then phoned Trump.

“Guess what, I’m waiting [on] the street because everything is frozen for you,” he said, and can then be heard laughing at the response.

Macron then said he would love to have a short conversation with Trump and Qatar about the “situation in Gaza”.

According to the New York Times, Macron and his entourage were forced to walk through the streets of New York for half an hour to reach their destination.

While addressing the General Assembly this week, Macron has vigorously defended the role of the United Nations and spoken of the “need to continue to act together”.

He also announced that France would join other countries – including Australia, the UK and Canada – in recognising Palestine as a state.

“The time has come to end the war in Gaza, the massacres and the death,” he said in the speech. “The time has come to do justice for the Palestinian people and thus to recognise the State of Palestine in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem.”

Trump, however, continues to reject world leaders’ efforts to embrace a Palestinian state, a move that faces fierce resistance from Israel.

“The rewards would be too great for Hamas terrorists, for their atrocities,” he told the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday (US time), repeating his call for the return of hostages taken by the Palestinian militant group.

Trump spoke for nearly an hour at the gathering – well over his 15-minute allotted time. He launched a blistering attack on other world leaders and US allies, claiming that European countries were “going to hell” because of their immigration policies, and that climate change was “the greatest con job”.

He also complained about a broken teleprompter during his speech and a “bad escalator” at the UN building.

“These are the two things I got from the United Nations: a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter.”

The United Nations later said it had solved the mystery of why the escalator abruptly stopped shortly after Trump stepped onto it, saying his videographer may have accidentally triggered a safety mechanism.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said a readout of the escalator’s central processing unit indicated it “had stopped after a built-in safety mechanism on the comb step was triggered at the top of the escalator”.

He said Trump’s videographer had been travelling backwards up the escalator to capture his arrival with First Lady Melania Trump.

“The videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety function,” Dujarric said in a statement.

“The safety mechanism is designed to prevent people or objects accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing.”

While Trump had seemed lighthearted about the incident, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wasn’t.

“If someone at the UN intentionally stopped the escalator as the President and First Lady were stepping on, they need to be fired and investigated immediately,” she posted on X after it occurred.