News In Pictures: President Trump Holds a Rare White House Funeral for His Younger Brother, Robert

 Donald Trump held a private funeral service at the White House Friday for his younger brother Robert who died last week one day after the president flew to New York to be by his bedside.

Trump and Melania Trump cut somber figures as they watched pallbearers carrying Robert's casket out of the North Portico of the White House and down the steps to a waiting hearse late Friday afternoon.

At one point, the president shut his eyes and took a moment at the top of the steps as his brother's coffin was led down the steps and bagpipes played in the background.

The First Lady, dressed in a midi length belted black dress and black court shoes, comforted her grieving husband clutching tightly onto his hand.

This is the first time a deceased person was held at the US seat of government since President John F. Kennedy's lay in state and his funeral procession started from there following his assassination back in 1963.

The service made Trump's brother one of only a handful of private citizens to have had their funeral service in the White House in its entire history.

Trump, in a black tie and navy suit, and Melania led mourners out of the North Portico and down the steps of the White House in a procession following Robert's black casket late Friday afternoon.

Pallbearers carried the casket - which was adorned with white floral wreaths - to a waiting hearse.

Family and friends of Robert - who died Saturday after 'suffering brain bleeds from a recent fall' - followed his body down the steps and watched as it was driven away.

Behind the president and First Lady was Robert's widow Ann Marie Pallan Trump, 55, - who he wed back in March - who looked on tearfully.

She was joined by Donald and Robert's sister Elizabeth Trump Grau, 78, and her husband James Grau, 84, a former film producer and one-time events executive at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach.

Elizabeth choked back tears while bagpipes played Lord Lovat’s Lament in the background - a tribute to the family’s roots as their late mother Mary Anne MacLeod came from Scotland.

They were joined by the president's children who were all pictured on the steps of the White House to pay their respects to their uncle.

Barron Trump towered over his siblings Donald Trump Jr. and girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner, Eric Trump and wife Lara and Tiffany Trump.

Also present were Robert's stepchildren Genna Nixon, 31, and TJ Pallan, 25, and their respective partners Flynn Nixon and Laura Taylor.

Genna and TJ were seen comforting their distraught mother and Robert's widow Ann Marie at the bottom of the steps.

David William Desmond, 59, Robert’s oldest nephew and the only child of Maryanne Trump Barry, from her first marriage to David Desmond, was also pictured on the steps.

Absent from the service were Maryanne Trump Barry, 83, the eldest surviving Trump child and a retired federal appeals judge.

Christopher Hollister Trump-Retchin, 44, Robert’s stepson from his first marriage to socialite Blaine Trump was also not seen.

It is not clear if they were present at the ceremony or not.

Several mourners embraced and comforted each other as the black casket was placed inside the hearse and driven away.

The last time a deceased person was held at the White House was in 1963 for JFK after he was assassinated in Dallas by Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22.

Following the shooting, Kennedy's body was flown back to the White House and placed in the East Room and set upon the same catafalque used at Lincoln's funeral, where officials and heads of state visited to pay their respects.

His funeral procession on November 25 then started from the White House down Pennsylania Avenue to St. Matthew's Cathedral, before his body was buried in Arlington Memorial Cemetery.

Other presidents who were assassinated also had services at the White House.

Presidents Abraham Lincoln and William McKinley lay in state in the East Room and James Garfield did not have a White House funeral but did lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda.

Other presidents who died while in office, like Franklin Roosevelt, also lay in state at the White House.

It is rare for a non-president to have a funeral service at the White House.

There have been only two other known services for private citizens in history - the last being in 1936 for Louis Howe, an adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor.

This came after a Lincoln held a private service in the Green Room for his son Willie Lincoln who died in February 1862 of typhoid fever aged 11.

Woodrow Wilson’s first wife, Ellen Louise Axson Wilson died of Bright's disease in the White House in August 1914, but it is unclear if she had a funeral service in the executive mansion.