WASHINGTON ― The pastor of an inauguration prayer service attended Tuesday by President Donald Trump urged the newly sworn-in president to “have mercy” on immigrants and transgender children ‒ making what she called “one final plea.”
“In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde said during her sermon at the National Cathedral as Trump and Vice President JD Vance watched alongside their families.
“There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives,” Budde said, later telling Trump of immigrants, “Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land.”
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The pastor’s remarks followed a first day of Trump’s second term in office that included a flurry of executive actions targeting transgender Americans and immigrants in the country illegally. Trump declared the federal government recognizes only male and female as the only gender, reversing protections for transgender people put in place under former President Joe Biden.
To carry out his immigration agenda, Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border, ordered the U.S. armed forces to repel “forms of invasion” at the U.S.-Mexico border and sought to end birthright citizenship despite questions whether doing so is constitutional.
Trump, asked about the sermon after returning to the White House, said, “Was not too exciting, was it?”
“They could do much better,” Trump said.
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During her comments, Budde said: “The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals ‒ they they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals.”
Vance seemed to grimace as the pastor spoke, making glances to his wife Usha Vance and toward Trump, who sat mostly stoically.
Budde called immigrants “good neighbors” who pay taxes and are “faithful members” of churches, temples, synagogues and other places of worship.
“I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here,” Budde said.
Budde, who was consecrated as the ninth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington in 2011, was described as “unapologetically liberal” in a Washington Post profile the same year she was installed in that role.
Budde has been critical of Trump in the past. She said she was “outraged” in 2020 after Trump walked unannounced to St. John’s Episcopal Church ‒ across the street from the White House and part of her diocese ‒ to hold up a Bible during protests following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
