Trump criticizes religious service after bishop asks for “mercy” for immigrants and LGBTQ community
cnn
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US President Donald Trump said he “didn’t think it was a good service” after a member of the clergy addressed the president directly during his sermon on Tuesday, asking him to have “mercy for the people of the country that is afraid,” particularly immigrants and members of the LGBTQ community.
“Let me make one last plea, Mr. President: millions have placed their trust in you and, as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God,” Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde said during her sermon, part of an interfaith National Prayer Service in honor of Trump’s inauguration. “In the name of our lord, I ask you to have mercy on the people of our country who are afraid.”
Edgar Budde said there were “gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some of whom fear for their lives.”
The bishop also referred to “the people who collect our products and clean our offices, who work on poultry farms and wash dishes in their restaurants and work night shifts in hospitals.”
“They may not be citizens or may not have proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. “They pay taxes and are good neighbors.”
Upon returning to the White House this Tuesday, Trump responded to a question from reporters by himself asking what they thought about the religious service.
“It wasn’t very exciting, was it?” he said. “I don’t think it was a good service, no. “They could have done a lot better.”
Trump and his family reacted during his remarks. When Budde finished, Trump looked at his vice president and said something, to which Vance shook his head.
Budde is the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. The church’s website describes her as an “advocate and organizer in support of justice issues, including racial equity, gun violence prevention, immigration reform, full inclusion of LGBTQ+ people, and care of creation.”
In 2020, Budde said she was “outraged” after President Donald Trump visited her church, St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, unannounced to share “a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus.”
His pointed comments came after the president walked from the White House to the house of worship that has been used by American presidents for more than a century. Peaceful protesters standing just outside the White House doors were dispersed with tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets. It was all, apparently, so Trump could visit the church.
