Trumps pay tribute to shooting victims
PITTSBURGH >> One stone and one 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 Trumps first went inside the vestibule of the synagogue, where they lit candles for each victim before stepping outside.
It was a marker of the political divisions roiling the nation in the aftermath of the Sabbath shooting that 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 had been conducting services when the shots rang out, led the first couple outside and gestured at white Jewish stars 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
son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who are Jewish.
Trump stepped into the role of national consoler, a title he wears uncomfortably, as he arrived in Squirrel Hill, the neighborhood where he faced an uneasy welcome.
Flowers, candles and chalk drawings filled the nearby 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.
Squirrel Hill resident Paul Carberry, 55, said Trump should not have visited until the dead were buried, and he decried the president’s
divisive rhetoric.
“He didn’t pull the trigger, but his verbiage and actions don’t help,” Carberry said. Hundreds of protesters assembled to show their displeasure with Trump’s presence.
When Air Force One touched down at the airport outside Pittsburgh, the Trumps were not greeted by the usual phalanx of local officials that typically welcomes a visiting president, a reflection of controversy surrounding the visit.
Local and religious leaders were divided on whether Trump should have come.
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, a Democrat, told reporters
before the visit was announced that the White House ought to consult with the families of the victims about their preferences and asked that the president not come during a funeral.
Neither he nor Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf planned to appear with Trump.
As his motorcade wound through downtown Pittsburgh, some onlookers saluted the president with upraised middle fingers and others with downturned thumbs. Scattered protest signs included messages
The White House invited the top four congressional leaders to join Trump in
Pennsylvania, but none accompanied him.
A spokesman for Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he already had events in his home state of Kentucky, pushing back on the suggestion that he declined.
Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan’s office said he could not attend on short notice. Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi also opted not to participate.
Questions have long swirled about the president’s credibility as a unifier. Since his 2016 Republican
campaign for the White House, Trump has at times been slow to denounce white nationalists, neo-Nazis and other hate-filled individuals and groups that found common cause with his nationalistic political rhetoric.
Trump traveled to the historic hub of the city’s Jewish community as the first funerals were held for the victims, who range in age from 54 to 97. The dead include a set of brothers, a husband and wife, professors, dentists and a physician.
It was not immediately clear whether Trump would meet with any family members.