Trumps and Jared Kushner Confronted by Thousands of Protesters at Pittsburgh Synagogue: “President Hate, Leave Our State”
President Donald Trump, his wife and first lady Melania Trump, his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner were greeted by thousands of protesters Tuesday afternoon when they arrived in Pittsburgh to visit the Tree of Life Synagogue where 11 Jewish worshippers were killed by a gunman Saturday.
The Trump family went to pay their respects to victims despite some residents expressing disapproval of the visit and some local and national officials declining to appear with the president and instead support families attending funerals.
About 2,000 protesters, many of them Jewish, marched against the president and chanted, “Words have meaning,” and held signs including one that said, “We build bridges not walls,” according to Reuters. Other signs read, “President Hate, Leave Our State!” and, “Trump, Renounce White Nationalism Now.”
As @realDonaldTrump visits the Tree of Life synagogue, neighbors nearby can be heard shouting “words have meaning” pic.twitter.com/Y1xYOFFFGi
— Cecilia Vega (@CeciliaVega) 30 October 2018
The progressive Jewish group IfNotNow organized a Shiva mourning period on Squirrel Hill and used it to show the Trumps they were not welcome as Air Force One landed.
“He’s fostered an administration of white supremacy and he is not welcome here in our time of mourning,” Arielle Cohen, an organizer, told BuzzFeed News.
Another protester, Giulianna Lamanna, donned a green jacket with the words “I REALLY DO CARE, Y DON’T YOU?” as a dig against Melania Trump and the infamous “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” jacket she wore earlier in the year on a trip to visit migrant children separated from their parents at the southern border.
Lamanna told BuzzFeed News she was there to “honor the 11 people who were lost to hatred, and to send a message to Trump, who has fanned the flames of hate and is partially responsible for this tragedy, and is only making things worse by coming.”
A passerby, Suzette Hufford, said the president’s visit was “not something the people here want.” “He has promoted more negativity than he has support and solidarity,” she told the online news outlet.