Bishop called to ‘replace President Trump’ in 2020
President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for an apology from Washington Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde after she made a direct appeal to him for “mercy” toward LGBT-identified Americans and illegal immigrants during an inaugural prayer service.
In her prayer Monday at the Washington National Cathedral, Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, directly addressed Trump, who was seated in the front row alongside his wife, first lady Melania Trump, and Vice President J.D. Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance.
After referencing Trump’s belief that God saved him from an assassination attempt, Budde said, “You have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.”
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While Trump initially dismissed the service, stating, “I didn’t think it was a good service” and suggested “they could do much better,” he took to his social media platform Truth Social and sharply criticized Budde, referring to her as a “Radical Left hard line Trump hater.”
The president wrote in part: “The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater. She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.”
Trump said Budde sidestepped the issue of illegal immigration, which a Gallup poll last year found to be the most pressing national problem for voters ahead of the 2024 election.
“[Budde] failed to mention the large number of illegal migrants that came into our Country and killed people. Many were deposited from jails and mental institutions,” Trump wrote. “It is a giant crime wave that is taking place in the USA.”
He called upon Budde and the cathedral to issue a “public apology” for the sermon, adding that the “service was a very boring and uninspiring one.”
CP reached out to the cathedral Wednesday for comment. This story will be updated if a response is received.
In an appearance on ABC’s “The View” Wednesday morning, the 65-year-old bishop addressed the national controversy and said her intention was “to pray with the nation for unity.”
“My responsibility yesterday morning was to reflect, to pray with the nation for unity,” she said. “As I was pondering, what are the foundations of unity? I wanted to emphasize respecting the honor and dignity of every human being, basic honesty and humility.
“I also realized that unity requires a certain degree of mercy, compassion and understanding. So, knowing that a lot of people … in our country right now are really scared, I wanted to take the opportunity in the context of that service for unity to say we need to treat everyone with dignity and we need to be merciful. I was trying to counter the narrative that is so divisive and polarizing, and in which people, real people, are being harmed.”
It’s not the first time the historic church has stirred controversy for its anti-Trump stance. Gary Hall, the former dean of the cathedral who left the post in 2015, said he was disappointed with the decision to hold Trump’s first inaugural service in 2017 at the cathedral.
In a 2017 interview with Think Progress, a Democrat-aligned news outlet, Hall denounced the National Cathedral for “legitimizing” Trump’s first administration and said he believes Trump “violates any possible norm of Christian faith and practice.”
At the time, Budde took a slightly softer stance, saying, “At a time when emotions are raw, we hope to offer a few moments of spiritual solace and the healing gift of transcendent beauty.”
However, Budde didn’t shy away from a more overtly political stance in 2020, when she criticized Trump for the infamous photo of him holding a Bible in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church near the White House after it had been damaged during the protests against the killing of George Floyd. U.S. Park Police and National Guard troops used tear gas to clear protesters before Trump walked from the White House to the church for the photo and brief comments.
Budde argued the move desecrated “our sacred space.”
“That is the most sacred text of the Judeo-Christian tradition,” Budde told NPR in June 2020. “It speaks messages of love, of God, love of neighbor. I was outraged that he felt that he had the license to do that and that he would abuse our sacred symbols and our sacred space in that way.”
In a Facebook post at the time, Budde accused Trump of using tear gas to “clear the church yard” so it could be used as a “backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything that our church stands for.”
In August 2020, Budde offered a prayer for the Democratic National Convention. At a rally in 2020, she called for “swift justice for George Floyd, for systemic justice for all brown and black people who have been under the knee of this country.”
“I’ve given up speaking to President Trump,” Budde said. “We need to replace President Trump.”
Her bio on the cathedral website describes Budde as “an advocate and organizer in support of justice concerns, including racial equity, gun violence prevention, immigration reform, the full inclusion of [LGBT] persons, and the care of creation.”
Since 1933, Washington National Cathedral has served as the venue for presidential inaugural prayer services, beginning with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first inauguration. The cathedral, which describes itself as a “house of prayer for all people,” has continued this tradition with the only exception being President Bill Clinton’s two inaugurations, when he chose the historic Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Washington for his prayer services.
Beyond its role in inaugural events, Washington National Cathedral has also been the site of funeral and memorial services for nearly all of the 21 U.S. presidents who have passed away since the cathedral’s founding, including for late President Jimmy Carter earlier this month.
