Protesters in Pittsburgh berate Trump
PITTSBURGH: Donald Trump visited the Pittsburgh synagogue where 11 people were gunned down at the weekend in an anti-Semitic attack, as more than 1,000 protesters gathered nearby to make it clear the US president was unwelcome.
Carrying signs that read “President Hate, Leave Our State!” and “Trump, Renounce White Nationalism Now,” the protesters gathered near the Tree of Life synagogue where the carnage unfolded on Saturday.
Trump – accompanied by his wife Melania, as well as his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, who are Jewish – was to light a candle for each of the 11 victims, killed during Shabbat services.
The controversial visit came after mourners crowded into nearby synagogues and joined street processions at the first funerals for some of the victims of the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in modern US history.
The service for brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal, both in their 50s, was the first in honour of those killed in what was an apparent hate crime.
Services for 66-year-old doctor Jerry Rabinowitz and 71-year-old Daniel Stein followed in Pittsburgh, where scores of residents protested Trump’s visit.
The president’s trip to Pennsylvania came amid a mounting row over whether his fierce rhetoric at campaign rallies and on Twitter has helped stoke extremism ahead of midterm elections.
“It’s just enraging that this type of hate crime could occur and that the leadership of our country does not denounce anti-Semitism and does not denounce white nationalism and does not denounce neo-Nazism. And that is the problem,” mourner Joanna Izenson said.