--- title: Donald Trump Keeps Hostile Tone as Synagogue Mourns description: When President Donald Trump visits Pittsburgh Tuesday, he'll be faced with a tough balancing act. canonical: https://time.com/5438227/donald-trump-punching-back-pittsburgh/ author: Brian Bennett article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-10-29T21:10:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T11:47:23.933Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Keeps Hostile Tone as Synagogue Mourns og:description: Even as he tries to comfort families. og:url: https://time.com/5438227/donald-trump-punching-back-pittsburgh/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6bb80b11517cccaa/69893dc2e76ad27fcd6335c1/bowers-synagogue-shooter-hospital-staff-jewish.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5472 og:image:height: 3078 og:image:alt: bowers-synagogue-shooter-hospital-staff-jewish og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Keeps Hostile Tone as Synagogue Mourns twitter:description: Even as he tries to comfort families. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6bb80b11517cccaa/69893dc2e76ad27fcd6335c1/bowers-synagogue-shooter-hospital-staff-jewish.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Keeps Hostile Tone as Synagogue Mourns > Sponsored content. 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Oct 29, 2018 9:10 PM UTC  A person stands in front of Stars of David that are displayed in front of the Tree of Life Synagogue with the names of those killed in Saturday's deadly shooting in Pittsburgh on Oct. 29, 2018. A person stands in front of Stars of David that are displayed in front of the Tree of Life Synagogue with the names of those killed in Saturday's deadly shooting in Pittsburgh on Oct. 29, 2018. Matt Rourke—AP/REX/Shutterstock  by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME. Oct 29, 2018 9:10 PM UTC When President Donald Trump visits Pittsburgh Tuesday, he’ll be faced with the tough task of balancing the traditional presidential duty to comfort and unite the country following the deadly synagogue shooting with his instinct to rip into his political foes and the press. The White House struggled to strike that balance Monday. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders opened her first press briefing in 26 days with a tearful statement about the shooting, but ended the briefing with a diatribe against what the White House views as unfair coverage by the press. Sanders choked up as she said that Trump and first lady Melania Trump will travel to Pittsburgh on Tuesday in the wake of “a chilling act of mass murder” and an “act of hatred” that [left 11 people dead](http://time.com/5436829/multiple-casualties-shooting-pittsburgh-synagogue/) in the Tree of Life synagogue. Sanders added that anti-Semitism is a “plague to humanity” and something that all Americans “have a duty to confront.” But it didn’t take long before Sanders was criticizing the press for highlighting Trump’s harsh rhetoric on the campaign trail in the run up to the midterm elections. After the shooting, “the very first thing that the president did was condemn the attacks,” Sanders said. “The very first thing the media did was blame the president,” she said. The media, she said, has “a huge responsibility to play in the divisive nature of the country.” The press hasn’t done enough to highlight the impact of Trump’s policies on the booming economy and low unemployment, among other things, Sanders said. Asked if a national tragedy takes precedence over Trump’s need to punch back against opponents, Sanders said Trump had repeatedly “risen to that occasion and worked to bring our country together” after the deadly Las Vegas shooting that killed 58 people in October 2017, hurricanes and the tragedy in Pittsburgh. On Twitter Monday, Trump blamed the news media for “division and hatred” in the country and called the press “the true Enemy of the People.” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1056879122348195841) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1056700376718684160) It was not the first time Trump has struggled to balance his political fighting instincts. Following deadly clashes last year between neo-Nazis and counter protestors in Charlottesville, Virginia, critics blamed Trump for increasing racial tensions when he said there was “blame on both sides.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5438227/donald-trump-punching-back-pittsburgh/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5438227/donald-trump-punching-back-pittsburgh/"},"headline":"President Trump Keeps Hostile Tone as Synagogue Mourns","datePublished":"2018-10-29T21:10:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T11:47:23.933Z","description":"When President Donald Trump visits Pittsburgh Tuesday, he'll be faced with a tough balancing act.","url":"https://time.com/5438227/donald-trump-punching-back-pittsburgh/","keywords":["Donald Trump","White House","mass shootings","pittsburgh"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6bb80b11517cccaa/69893dc2e76ad27fcd6335c1/bowers-synagogue-shooter-hospital-staff-jewish.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Brian Bennett","jobTitle":"Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6bb80b11517cccaa/69893dc2e76ad27fcd6335c1/bowers-synagogue-shooter-hospital-staff-jewish.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"bowers-synagogue-shooter-hospital-staff-jewish","caption":"Shooting Synagogue, Pittsburgh, USA - 29 Oct 2018","creditText":"Matt Rourke—AP/REX/Shutterstock","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5438227/donald-trump-punching-back-pittsburgh/","name":"President Trump Keeps Hostile Tone as Synagogue Mourns"}}]}] ```