During a prayer service at Washington’s National Cathedral on Tuesday, Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde directly addressed President Trump, who was seated in the front row alongside Vice President J.D. Vance.
This made my blood boil. Absolutely repulsive! pic.twitter.com/fw3KkyKm9R
— David Santa Carla 🦇 (@TheOnlyDSC) January 21, 2025
“Let me make one final plea, Mr. President,” Bishop Budde said during her 15-minute sermon. “Millions have placed their trust in you. As you shared with the nation yesterday, you have felt the guiding hand of a loving God.
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In the name of that God, I urge you to show mercy to the people in our country who are now living in fear,” Budde continued, seemingly directing her remarks toward the president. “There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in families across the political spectrum—Democrat, Republican, and Independent—some of whom are terrified for their lives.”
Her remarks followed a series of executive orders issued by Trump the day before. These included a policy recognizing “women as biologically distinct from men,” a declaration of a national emergency at the southern border, and measures targeting immigration, including an attempt to end birthright citizenship.
Bishop Budde openly criticized these orders and the rhetoric surrounding them.
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“The people who pick our crops, clean our office buildings, labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, wash dishes in restaurants, and work night shifts in hospitals—they may not be citizens or have proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors,” she stated.
Budde has been a vocal critic of Trump in the past, notably condemning his actions in 2020 when he posed for a photo outside the boarded-up St. John’s Episcopal Church holding a Bible. At the time, law enforcement had used chemical agents to disperse racial justice protesters, prompting Budde to tell The Washington Post, “Everything he has said and done is to inflame violence… We need moral leadership, and he’s done everything to divide us.”
Following Tuesday’s service, Republican U.S. Representative Mike Collins of Georgia posted a clip of Budde’s sermon on X, along with the comment, “The person giving this sermon should be added to the deportation list.”
Concluding her sermon, Budde made another heartfelt appeal: “I ask you, Mr. President, to show mercy to those in our communities whose children fear their parents will be taken away. Help those fleeing war zones and persecution in their homelands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land.”