Trump kept away from thousands of protesters on Pittsburgh visit after synagogue massacre

Top officials – including governor of Pennsylvania and mayor of Pittsburgh – have refused to meet with president during his visit

Thousands of anti-Trump protesters gathered in Pittsburgh as the president touched down in the city, reeling from the most deadly antisemitic attack in US history.

The president and the first lady flew to Pennsylvania as a fierce debate has gripped the nation over whether Donald Trump’s rhetoric was contributing to the divisive environment in which such acts of violence are more likely.

They arrived as funerals for some of the 11 victims - gunned down at the Tree of Life synagogue on Saturday afternoon - took place.

Shrugging off public assertions from Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto that the visit was ill-timed, the president entered the Tree of Life temple and was met by Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, who led them inside the temple to light ritual yahrzeit candles in memory of the victims.

Emerging about 18 minutes later, the couple walked to a memorial outside the building, where the first lady placed a flower and the president placed a small stone on a marker for each of the dead.

First lady Melania Trump puts down a white flower at a memorial for those killed at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. (AP)

Mr Trump, who according to press secretary Sarah Sanders, described his visit as "very humbling and sad," left in his motorcade after about 30 minutes at the synagogue.

He made no public remarks.

"He wanted today to be about showing respect for the families and the friends of the victims as well as for Jewish Americans," Ms Sanders said.

About a block away, an ethnically mixed crowd of all ages including members of Pittsburgh's tight-knit Jewish community, held an anti-Trump rally as his visit began, singing Old Testament psalms and carrying signs with slogans such as "We build bridges not walls."

Many of their signs carried slogans and imagery invoking one of Squirrel Hill's most famous residents, the late Fred Rogers, whose long-running children's television show "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" featured lessons on friendship and kindness. Their march started on the street where he grew up and ended at the church where he belonged.

“The gunman who tore apart our neighbourhood believed your lies about the immigrant caravan in Mexico,” protest organisers said in an announcement. “He believed anti-Semitic lies that Jews were funding the caravan."

The protest announcement echoed an open letter from a group of local Jewish leaders who told Mr Trump: “You are not welcome in Pittsburgh until you fully denounce white nationalism.” More than 74,500 people have signed the letter, organised by the local chapter of Bend the Arc, a Jewish organisation opposed to what it calls “the immoral agenda of the Trump administration and the Republican Party”.

Earlier, around 2,000 people from across the United States came to offer condolences to the relatives of David Rosenthal, 54, and Cecil Rosenthal, 59, at the Rodef Shalom synagogue in the city in Pennsylvania as police officers stood outside.

The gunman who tore apart our neighbourhood believed your lies about the immigrant caravan in Mexico 

Protest organisers 

Services were also held for Jerry Rabinowitz, a 66-year-old family physician, and Daniel Stein, a 71-year-old retiree. Nurses in surgical scrubs were among the crowd of about 2,000 mourners.

“He was just precious. I feel like I’ve lost a father figure and I have a father,” said Michele Bucher, a 54-year-old patient of the doctor.

Suspected gunman Robert Bowers, 46, appeared in court on Monday to face the first of dozens of charges, including 11 for murder.

The attack, which the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) described as the deadliest targeting Jews in the United States, has heightened a national debate over Mr Trump’s rhetoric, which critics say has contributed to a surge in white nationalist and neo-Nazi activity.

The president’s administration has rejected such accusations, even as he continues his rhetoric over cracking down on immigration and the migrant caravan.

Mr Trump also visited a city hospital and met with three of the injured police officers who shot and apprehended the gunman.

“I’m just going to pay my respects,” he earlier told Fox News. “I would have done it even sooner, but I didn’t want to disrupt any more than they already had disruption.“

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer, Republican House speaker Paul Ryan and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi – have all declined to join Mr Trump.

Pittsburgh Mayor 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 governor Tom Wolf appeared with Trump.

Beth Melena, spokesperson for Wolf, said the governor based his decision to stay away following input from the victims’ families, who told him they did not want the president to be there on the day their loved ones were being buried.

The ADL, a nonprofit group dedicated to fighting antisemitism and all hate speech, said last week that far-right extremists had stepped up “online propaganda offensives” in the run-up to the elections to attack and intimidate Jews.

But not everyone was opposed to the president’s visit. Shayna Marcus, a nurse who rushed to the synagogue on Saturday to help with 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, whose four yarmulke-wearing boys carried signs in support of the president. David Dvir said he believed that politics should take a pause to allow people to grieve: “It’s our president, and we need to welcome him.”