Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner Image by Getty Images

At the urging of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, President Trump made plans to travel to Pittsburgh this week, following the murder of 11 people at a synagogue in the city, the New York Times reported.

The Jewish couple reportedly had to ask the president to share an impassioned statement denouncing anti-Semitism, according to the Times, after the shooting on Saturday at the Tree of Life Congregation in the largely Jewish town of Squirrel Hill.

White House officials Jason Greenblatt and Avi Berkowitz traveled to Pittsburgh the day of the shooting and were still there Sunday, the Times reported.

Despite the planned trip, more than 22,000 people have signed an open letter to Trump telling the president that he is not welcome in Pittsburgh. Written by 11 members of the Pittsburgh affiliate of Bend the Arc, a national organization for progressive Jews focused on social justice, the letter asks that the president not visit the grieving city until he disavows white nationalism and stop targeting minorities.

Trump denounced the mass shooting as a “wicked act of pure evil and anti-Semitic,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

“We can’t let evil change our life and change our schedule. We can’t do that. We have to go,” he said at an event in Illinois on Saturday, the day of the shooting.

He had considered canceling a campaign rally later in the day but viewed it as “an obligation,” the Journal reported.

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

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