2LT International News

PENNSYLVANIA, U.S. – Faced with accusations that his rhetoric has encouraged antisemitism, the U.S. President Donald Trump visited Pennsylvania’s second-largest city on Tuesday.

Trump landed in Pittsburgh on Tuesday afternoon, along with First Lady, Melania Trump and his daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner – who are both Jewish – to pay his respects at the Tree of Life Synagogue.

The President’s visit to Pittsburgh comes merely days after the city suffered the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in American history, in which 46-year-old Robert Bowers shot and killed 11 Jewish worshipers.

Trump’s solemn visit to the grieving city on Tuesday, also came despite some local officials publicly clarifying that the President’s presence was unwelcome as the first of the victims’ funerals was to be held the same day.

His visit was also denounced by thousands of protesters, who lined the streets hours before he was due to arrive, holding signs and chanting slogans against the President’s alleged encouragement of antisemitic acts, through his harsh rhetoric. 

After arriving in Pittsburgh aboard Air Force One, Trump, Melania, Ivanka and Jared Kushner paid a brief visit to the Tree of Life synagogue, where Bowers killed 11 people during a baby naming ceremony on Saturday.

Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, the congregation’s rabbi, led the President and his family towards the synagogue, where they lit candles at the entryway, before visiting a memorial outside the building.

While the sanctuary is still considered a crime scene, the community had set up a memorial outside the synagogue, where Star of David markers had been planted in remembrance of the victims in keeping with a traditional Jewish practice.

The First Lady placed a flower and Trump lay stones on top of the markers that had been planted in the ground outside the synagogue for each of the 11 victims of the massacre. 

While Trump and Melania paid their respects at the memorial, thousands of protesters gathered nearby could be heard chanting slogans.

The President and his family also visited wounded law enforcement officers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Four of the six people who suffered injuries in the shooting still remain at the hospital. 

‘Prioritizing the funeral’

The Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin joined the President at the memorials, even though several elected leaders declined Trump’s invitations.

According to two congressional sources quoted in a CNN report, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi were invited to join Trump during the visit to Pittsburgh.

However, neither of them joined Trump during the visit. 

Schumer and Pelosi have not commented on their invite or their absence, while offices of McConnell and Ryan cited scheduling conflicts to explain their absence. 

Further, neither of the two Pennsylvania senators – Republican Sen. Pat Toomey and Democratic Sen. Bob Casey –  were present during Trump’s visit. 

A spokesman for Sen. Toomey said that the Republican Senator had received, but had declined the President’s invite due to previous commitments in another part of the state. 

Meanwhile, the communications director of Sen. Bob Casey said that he had not been invited by the White House and planned to attend a vigil for the victims in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, Pittsburgh’s Democratic Mayor Bill Peduto told the media that he had declined the President’s invitation to join him at the memorials on Tuesday. 

Peduto was quoted as saying in a Washington Post report that he declined the invitation to join the Trumps since the attention “should be on the victims.”

The Mayor reportedly explained, “We do not have enough public safety officials to provide enough protection at the funerals and to be able at the same time draw attention to a potential presidential visit.”

Earlier this week, Peduto told reporters that Trump should forestall a visit while burials begin.

Asked about the Mayor’s absence during Trump’s visit, his communications director, Tim McNulty said, “Mayor Peduto’s sole focus today is on the funerals and supporting the families.”

Meanwhile, the White House issued a statement saying the president was visiting the city to “express the support of the American people and to grieve with the Pittsburgh community.”

‘Not welcome here’

Following the attack, Trump was widely criticized for his toxic rhetoric, which critics claimed had created a political climate that is conducive to acts of violence.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has said that Saturday’s attack was “the deadliest targeting Jews in U.S. history.”

The President’s critics and several groups have blamed his rhetoric for having contributed to a surge in white nationalist and neo-Nazi activity.

Earlier this week, progressive Jewish leaders from Pittsburgh’s ‘Bend the Arc’ organization addressed an open letter calling on Trump to soften his tone.

In the letter, which has been signed by 74,500 people so far, the group of Jewish leaders wrote that Trump’s words and policies over the past three years “have emboldened a growing white nationalist movement.”

The group declared in the letter, “You are not welcome in Pittsburgh until you fully denounce white nationalism.”

While some of Trump’s campaign rallies have instantly drawn criticism for the angry and violent messages that he espouses, the White House has rejected the notion that the President’s rhetoric encouraged right-wing extremism as “outrageous.”

On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders argued that it was “outrageous” to suggest that “Trump or his language was at all responsible” for the deadliest attack on the American Jewish community. 

Sanders told reporters, “The president is not responsible for these acts. I think it’s irresponsible to blame the president and members of his administration for those heinous acts.”

Yet, Saturday’s attack has flamed the already burning national debate over Trump’s rhetoric – with the anger most visible on the streets of Pittsburgh as the President and his family visited the grieving city.

Amongst the over 2,000 protesters that staged a demonstration against Trump’s visit, many of them were members of Pittsburgh’s tight-knit Jewish community.

Protesters chanted slogans like, ‘Words have meaning,’ ‘Strength through Unity,’ ‘Watch Your Words’ and ‘Hate does not work in our Neighborhoods.’

Others were seen carrying signs that read, ‘We build bridges not walls,’ ‘President Hate, leave our state,’ and ‘Trump lies kill.’

Locals were specifically angry since the U.S. president’s visit was on the same day as the first funerals for victims of the massacre were to be held.

Thousands of mourners attended the funerals on Tuesday, including several people who had descended on Pittsburgh from different parts of the country to offer their respects to the mostly elderly victims of the gunman. 

Meanwhile, the accused gunman – who yelled “All Jews must die” before opening fire on worshipers at the synagogue on Saturday – has been charged with 29 federal felony counts, including hate crimes and using a firearm to commit murder.

If convicted, Bowers stands to face the death penalty.