Trump Pittsburgh visit: ‘Hundreds’ protest as president and first lady visit Tree of Life synagogue

Donald Trump says he considered cancelling speech due to wet hair on day of Pittsburgh shooting

President Donald Trump made a controversial visit to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania just days after a gunman entered a synagogue there and murdered 11 worshippers.

The president was met with hundreds of protestors, with the trip coming as the community mourned their lost loved ones, and just as burials began.

The attack on Saturday has sparked a national conversation around the president's rhetoric, and Jewish leaders have suggested that the president has not been strong enough in denouncing anti-semitism in the United States as president. At least one mourning family has declined an invitation to meet with the president, and the mayor of the city has asked that Mr Trump not come to the city.

The president and his allies, meanwhile, have pushed back on the notion that he in any way fosters an environment that is sympathetic or allowing of hate based upon religion and race.

Read events from the visit as they happened below

Please allow a moment for the liveblog to load

[30 October 2018 15:02 · Clark Mindock]

Good afternoon and welcome to The Independent's live coverage of President Donald Trump's visit to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania today.

The president's trip comes as the community has begun burying the 11 dead after the massacre on Saturday.

[30 October 2018 15:18 · Clark Mindock]

The president has been criticised following the shooting in Pittsburgh for the rhetoric he regularly employs during his campaign rallies, and in his official capacity as president.

His critics charge that the president has fostered a hostile environment for people of colour, and of jewish people in the United States. His rhetoric, they say, has allowed anti-semitic sentiments to flourish during his presidency.

The president and his supporters have pushed back on those accusations, and have said that the president does not support violence of any kind against minority groups in America.

[30 October 2018 15:40 · Clark Mindock]

Several top politicians in Washington have declined invitations to accompany the president on his trip to Pittsburgh, which has been mired in controversy as jewish leaders in the city have requested the president not show up after the attack that left 11 worshippers dead.

Those top politicians who declined invitations to visit include the top Democrats and Republicans in Congress: Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

[30 October 2018 16:01 · Clark Mindock]

The president is expected to land in Pittsburgh at 3.45pm ET, according to his public schedule.

He will be accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, and the two are scheduled to be in the city from then until sometime before 7.35pm ET, when they are expected to be back at Joint Base Andrews just outside of Washington.

[30 October 2018 16:21 · Clark Mindock]

The president's visit to Pittsburgh comes in spite of protest from the city's mayor and jewish leaders there.

In an interview with CNN, Democratic Mayor Bill Peduto said that days after the shooting is not the time for Mr Trump to visit his grieving city.

"I do believe that it would be best to put the attention on families this week and if he were to visit, choose a different time to do it," Mr Peduto said.

Jewish leaders in Pittsburgh associated with the progressive group Bend the Arc took a bit more biting of an approach to their calls for the president not to visit in a recent op-ed, however.

"President Trump, you are not welcome in Pittsburgh until you fully denounce white nationalism", the letter reads. "Our Jewish community is not the only group you have targeted. You have also deliberately undermined the safety of people of color, Muslims, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities".

[30 October 2018 17:00 · Clark Mindock]

Mr Trump told Fox News' Laura Ingraham late on Monday that he is going ahead with his trip to Pittsburgh following the shooting in spite of requests he stay away because he wants to pay his respects to the dead.

"Well, I'm just going to pay my respects," Mr Trump said. "I'm also going to the hospital to see the officers and some of the people that were so badly hurt." 

[30 October 2018 17:30 · Clark Mindock]

Among those who think the president's trip to Pittsburgh is ill advised is one of the survivors of the Saturday massacre, per the Associated Press:

In Squirrel Hill, Barry Werber, 76, who said he survived the massacre by hiding in a dark storage closet as the gunman rampaged through the building, said he hoped Trump wouldn't visit, noting that the president has embraced the politically fraught label of "nationalist." Werber said the Nazis were nationalists. 

"It's part of his program to instigate his base," Werber said, and "bigots are coming out of the woodwork." 

[30 October 2018 18:00 · Clark Mindock]

Here's some of the latest from the Associated Press on the funerals that began today in Pittsburgh following the shooting on Saturday:

Hundreds of mourners dressed mostly in black are lined up, ringing the perimeter of Pittsburgh's city's oldest and largest synagogue, Rodef Shalom, to pay respect for two intellectually disabled brothers who were gunned down on Saturday. 

A funeral was set to begin at noon Tuesday for Cecil and David Rosenthal, who were both in their 50s. 

They were among 11 people who died in the massacre inside the Tree of Life Synagogue. 

The mourners include Dr. Abe Friedman, who said the Rosenthal family is well known in Pittsburgh for their philanthropy and kindness. Friedman would sit in the back row of Tree of Life each week along with the brothers, and would have been killed along with them had he not run late Saturday. 

Services for Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz were also being held Tuesday. 

[30 October 2018 18:30 · Clark Mindock]

In addition to Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has said he will not accompany the president during his visit to the state to pay respects to the 11 victims of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting.

Mr Wolf and Mr Peduto are both Democrats. But, Mr Trump's visit to Pittsburgh has been widely criticised by jewish leaders and politicians who have expressed concern that the president's rhetoric inflames racial and religious divisions in the US.

[30 October 2018 22:12 · Lucy Anna Gray]

Thank you for following our live coverage of Donald Trump's visit to Pittsburgh follow the deadly shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue.