President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, seen here in August 2018 at the White House, will travel to Pittsburgh to support the city after 11 people were shot dead in the worst anti-Semitic attack in recent US history (SAUL LOEB)

Pittsburgh (AFP) – President Donald Trump and his wife Melania will travel to Pittsburgh on Tuesday to support the city after 11 people were shot dead in the worst anti-Semitic attack in recent US history.

The White House announced the trip Monday amid a mounting row over whether Trump’s fierce rhetoric at campaign rallies and on Twitter has been partly responsible for stoking extremist fires ahead of November 6 midterm elections.

“Tomorrow, the president and first lady will travel to Pennsylvania to express the support of the American people and grieve with the Pittsburgh community,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told journalists in Washington.

Robert Bowers, the man accused in the massacre during Saturday prayers at the Tree of Life synagogue, made a first court appearance Monday, attending the session in a wheelchair after being wounded during a gunfight with police.

Pasty faced, the 46-year-old spent only three minutes in court, making little comment other than to respond “Yes” and “Yes Sir” to procedural questions from the Pittsburgh federal judge.

Bowers allegedly told police after his arrest that he “wanted all Jews to die” because he said they were inflicting genocide on “his people.” Social media posts attributed to Bowers indicate that in addition to hating Jews, he is also virulently anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim. 

The judge scheduled his next court appearance for Thursday.

– Politics and tragedy –

A presidential visit to the site of a tragedy is not necessarily unusual but in the increasingly febrile atmosphere ahead of the midterms — where opposition Democrats hope to take control of at least one house of Congress — Trump’s trip is mired in politics.

Bowers’ shooting spree came in the same week that authorities arrested a Florida man — an ardent Trump supporter — on suspicion of mailing more than a dozen homemade bombs to opponents and critics of the president.

The two incidents have led to accusations that Trump has fanned violence through his almost daily tweets and speeches lambasting immigrants, opponents and journalists in divisive and hardline language.

For example, Bowers had reportedly referred on social media to anger at a group of several thousand impoverished Central Americans currently attempting to walk north to the United States — a favorite target of the president’s anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Jeffrey Myers, a Tree of Life rabbi who was present when the attack started, told CNN that “the president of the United States is always welcome.”

But also speaking on CNN, a former president of the synagogue, Lynette Lederman, told Trump on Monday to stay away, calling him a “purveyor of hate speech.”

Outside the synagogue, meanwhile, a trickle of mourners braved the cold to leave candles and bouquets.

Eleven identical white wooden stars were laid out, each inscribed with a name of the slain, together with a pink heart and a verse from a psalm: “The Lord is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

– White House strikes back –

Trump struck back Monday in typically robust fashion, arguing that critical journalists were in fact the ones feeding extremism across the country.

“There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news,” Trump tweeted.

“The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly. That will do much to put out the flame of Anger and Outrage.”

Sanders also used her press conference to complain about what she said was almost constantly critical media coverage.

“I think the president has had a number of moments of bringing the country together,” she said.

“The very first thing the media does was blame the president. You guys have a huge responsibility to play in the divisive nature of this country when 90 percent of the coverage of everything this president is negative, despite the fact that the country is doing extremely well.”

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