Bishop Mariann Budde recently confessed to using a National Prayer Service as a platform to confront President Trump with a political message during what she referred to as a ‘one on one conversation.’
After gaining attention for reprimanding Trump during Tuesday’s inaugural sermon, Budde explained that she felt compelled to deliver the controversial speech due to Trump’s negative portrayal of transgender children and illegal immigrants.
The left-wing Episcopal Bishop of Washington told CNN that she was ‘talking directly’ to Trump in her sermon.
In her own words, she stated, ‘(I was) reminding us all that the people that are frightened in our country, the two groups that I mentioned, are our fellow human beings, and that they have been portrayed all throughout the political campaign in the harshest of lights.’
‘I wanted to counter, as gently as I could, with a reminder of their humanity and their place in our wider community.
‘I was speaking to the president because I felt that he has this moment now where he feels charged and empowered to do what he feels called to do, and I wanted to say there is room for mercy. There is room for a broader compassion.
‘We don’t need to portray with a broad cloth in the harshest of terms some of the most vulnerable people in our society, who are in fact our neighbors and our friends.’
Budde spoke out after Trump said in response to her sermon that she ‘can do much better’ after sitting through the lecture pleading for ‘mercy’ for illegal immigrants and transgender children.
Asked by reporters at the White House for his verdict on the lecture from Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, earlier on Tuesday, Trump responded: ‘What did you think? Do you like it? Did you find it exciting?
‘Not too exciting, was it? I didn’t think it was a good service. Thank you very much.’
He added at the end of his remarks: ‘They can do much better.’
It came after Budde, 65, sparked backlash at the National Prayer Service on Trump’s first full day back in the presidency, as she unleashed a wild lecture claiming trans kids were ‘fearing for their lives’ due to him being in the Oval Office.
Trump sat stone-faced in the front row, next to First Lady Melania Trump, as the prelate told him illegal immigrants were ‘not criminals’, and he shouldn’t deport those with children.
After the sermon went viral, an image from Budde’s church, the St. Paul and St. Andrew United Methodist Church, circulated across social media, showing the church – which also reportedly serves as a migrant shelter – attempts to ban ICE and Homeland Security from entering.
As Budde’s sermon drew outrage from conservatives who questioned her decision to politicize the religious service, Republican Congressman Mike Collins said on X: ‘The person giving this sermon should be added to the deportation list.’
In her remarks, Budde directed the message of her sermon directly to Trump as she begged him to grant ‘mercy upon the people in our country that are scared now.’
‘There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives,’ she continued.
Moving onto illegal immigrants, a central issue on Trump’s victorious presidential platform, Budde urged him not to follow through with his mass deportation plans.
‘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 might not be citizens or have the proper documentation,’ she said.
‘The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. I ask you to have mercy Mr. President on those in communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away.’
Trump didn’t react to the pointed message as he sat staring at Budde, although others in his group, including new Vice President JD Vance, wore a more telling expression on their faces.
Despite the awkward silence in the cathedral, Bishop Budde continued her stunning pro-migrant scolding of the president.
She added ‘Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger for we were all strangers once in a strange land.’
The sermon quickly drew backlash from conservatives who slammed Budde’s politicized remarks, with Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno and Rep. Collins leading the criticisms of her speech.
Moreno said on X: ‘As a Catholic and legal immigrant, it’s outrageous that some woke Bishop would lecture President Trump about deporting illegals.
‘It’s an insult to all of us who came to this country the right way. If you don’t have borders, then you don’t have a country.’
Conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, who was seen celebrating the inauguration with the Trump family on Monday night, branded Budde’s lecture an ’embarrassment.’
‘She was given a great honor today, a chance to unify America around a Christian message at the dawn of a new administration,’ he said on X.
‘Instead, she disgraced herself with a lecture you’d hear on CNN or an episode of The View.’
Following Budde’s speech, scrutiny fell on her background as some questioned why she was granted the honor of delivering the sermon.
She is known to champion leftist causes through her ministry, and on her diocesan website, she boasts of serving as ‘an advocate and organizer in support of justice concerns, including racial equity, gun violence prevention, immigration reform, the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons, and the care of creation.’
She also has a long history of criticizing President Trump during his first term.
That included after after he stood next to an Episcopal church holding a Bible after clearing protesters out of Lafayette Square near the White House during the Black Lives Matter protests.
At the time, she said that Trump’s actions were ‘antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything that we as a church stand for.’
She also condemned Trump while attending an outdoor Black Lives Matter protest in 2020, wearing a mask during the coronavirus pandemic.
‘I’ve given up speaking to President Trump. We need to replace President Trump,’ she said then.
