At the end of her sermon at Tuesday’s inaugural prayer service, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde directly addressed President Donald Trump on his first full day in office.
“I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” she said. “There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives.”
Budde also asked Trump, who has repeatedly threatened mass deportation, to protect immigrants in the United States.:
“The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. 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 is the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, including the Washington National Cathedral where the inauguration service took place. The Episcopal Church in the U.S. has historically stood for supporting immigrants and LQBTQ people. Also on Tuesday, Episcopal leaders published a letter expressing concern over Trump’s anti-immigrant stance and stating, “As Christians, our faith is shaped by the biblical story of people whom God led into foreign countries to escape oppression.” On Sunday, Catholic Pope Francis also called Trump’s mass deportation plans “a disgrace.”
Trump began his presidency on Monday with a flurry of executive orders, including rescinding a Biden order that tried to prevent discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation and instead defining gender as sex determined at “conception.” He also signed multiple orders related to immigration, severely restricting opportunities for migrants to claim asylum and rescinding a Biden policy that prevents ICE agents from performing raids at schools and places of worship.
During Budde’s sermon, Trump reportedly looked down and then away, then said something to Vice President JD Vance after it was finished. He has since demanded an apology on Truth Social, writing, “She brought her church into the World [sic] of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.”
Budde told The New York Times she chose to speak directly to Trump in her sermon because of “the fear that I have seen and experienced among our people—people that I know and love, both within the immigrant community and within the LGBTQ community, and how terrified so many are.”
She said, “I wasn’t necessarily calling the president out. I was trying to say, ‘The country has been entrusted to you.’ And one of the qualities of a leader is mercy, right? Mercy. And to be mindful of the people who are scared.”
Watch the sermon in full below: