Donald Trump has visited Pittsburgh to pay his respects to the 11 people shot dead in a synagogue, as the city started to bury its dead and thousands signed a petition urging him not to come.
The president and the first lady flew to Pennsylvania, as a debate continued as to whether the president’s rhetoric and actions was contributing to a divisive environment in which such acts of violence are more likely.
The city held the first funerals for the 11 people killed at the Tree of Life synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighbourhood on Saturday morning. On Monday, suspected gunman Robert Bowers, 46, a man who had written anti-semitic screeds on social media and was apparently angry many in the Jewish community were supportive of the Central American migrant caravan, appeared in court to face the first of dozens of charges, including 11 of murder.
About 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 Pennsylvania city as police officers stood outside.
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 at Mr Rabinowitz's funeral, Reuters reported. “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.
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 Trump administration has rejected such accusations, even as he continues his rhetoric over cracking down on immigration and the migrant caravan.
It emerged that Mr Trump, who has ordered the deployment of more than 5,000 troops to help secure the US-Mexico border, believes he has the power to terminate birthright citizenship by means of an executive order.
Many commentators have said such rights are protected by the 14th amendment of the constitution and suspect Mr Trump may be simply trying to fire up his supporters, rather than intend to pursue such a move, which would almost certainly end up in the courts.
Mr Trump said he wanted to visit the four injured police officers who shot and apprehended the gunman. Two of the officers are still in hospital.
“I'm just going to pay my respects,” Mr Trump told Fox News. “I would have done it even sooner, but I didn’t want to disrupt anymore than they already had disruption.“
The top four U.S. congressional leaders - 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.
The city’s Democratic mayor, Bill Peduto, will not appear with the president. “Mayor Peduto’s sole focus today is on the funerals and supporting the families,” communications director Tim McNulty told CNN.
Many members of the city’s Jewish community said they would protest against Mr Trump’s visit, as the The ADL, a nonprofit group dedicated to fighting antisemitism and all hate speech, said last week far-right extremists had stepped up “online propaganda offensives” in the run-up to the elections to attack and intimidate Jews.
“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”.
But not everyone in the Jewish community is opposed to Mr Trump’s visit. David Dvir told the Associated Press he believed that politics should take a pause to allow people to grieve: “It's our president, and we need to welcome him.”
