Trumps pay tribute at synagogue
Hundreds protest the visit by president and family members
PITTSBURGH — One stone and one white rosebud for each victim.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump paid solemn tribute Tuesday to each of the 11 people slain in the worst instance of anti-Semitic violence in American history. As the Trumps placed their remembrances outside the Tree of Life synagogue, protesters nearby shouted that the president was not welcome.
The emotional, dissonant scene reflected the increasingly divided nation that Trump leads, one gripped by a week of political violence and hate, and hurtling toward contentious midterm elections that could alter the path of a presidency.
On arrival in Pittsburgh, the Trumps entered the vestibule of the synagogue, where they lit candles for each victim before stepping outside. Shouts of “Words matter!” and “Trump, go home!” could be heard from demonstrators gathered not far from where a gunman had opened fire on Saturday.
Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, who was conducting services when the shots rang out, gestured at the white Star of David posted for each victim. At each, the president placed a stone, a Jewish burial tradition, while the first lady added a flower. They were trailed by first daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, who are Jewish.
Near the synagogue, flowers, candles and chalk drawings filled the corner, including a small rock painted with the number “6,000,011,” adding the victims this week to the estimated number of Jews killed in the Holocaust.
The Trumps later spent more than an hour at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where some of the victims are recovering. The couple’s motorcade passed several hundred protesters and a sign that said: “It’s your fault.” Inside, Trump visited with wounded police officers and injured congregants, but did not appear to meet with relatives of the deceased.
Hundreds of protesters assembled to show their displeasure with Trump’s presence. Squirrel Hill resident Paul Carberry said Trump should not have visited until the dead were buried. “He didn’t pull the trigger, but his verbiage and actions don’t help,” Carberry said.
But Shayna Marcus, a nurse who rushed to the synagogue on Saturday to help the wounded, said she felt that the president was taking an unfair portion of the blame.
“I don’t think focusing on Trump is the answer — or on politics,” said Marcus.