By David W. Virtue, DD
January 22, 2025
In what must be the most humiliating tirade he has had to listen to since taking office, Donald Trump got taken to the woodshed by the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, Marianne Budde, who told the day-old new president that illegal immigrants were not criminals and he shouldn't deport those with children.
Trump listened in apparent disbelief as the ultra-liberal bishop scorned him with “transgender children fearing for their lives” at a traditional inaugural prayer service at Washington National Cathedral.
She told Trump, who had just pardoned some 1,500 US Capitol rioters, many of whom were convicted of criminal behavior, to show “mercy” to illegal immigrants and transgender children.
Budde, a woke, left-wing Episcopal bishop, lashed out at Trump, lecturing him, claiming trans kids were “fearing for their lives” due to his being in the Oval Office.
Budde then implored the president to “have mercy … on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. Help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here.”
One report said Trump sat stony-faced in the front row, next to First Lady Melania Trump, as the strumpet told him illegal immigrants were not criminals and he shouldn't deport those with children.
Bishop Budde, 65, looked directly at Trump in the highly politically-charged atmosphere and said; “I ask you to have 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.”
Budde, who can’t find a liberal cause she cannot support, then asked Trump to have mercy on illegal immigrants.
“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.”
“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.”
Another report said Trump maintained his calm and appeared to look on slightly wearily after a full day and night of Inauguration festivities.
But other members of the congregation seemed uncomfortable as they listened to the bishop's rip at Trump. Budde voiced outrage at Trump in June of 2020 when he appeared at one of her churches (St. John’s Episcopal Church) holding up a Bible in front of the parish "as if it were a prop or an extension of his military and authoritarian position."
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 said, “Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger for we were all strangers once in a strange land.” Trump declined to publicly criticize the bishop over the attack.
Asked about the service by reporters at the White House, Trump said: “What did you think, did you like it? Did you find it exciting? Not too exciting was it. I think it was a great service.” Budde has been an outspoken critic of Trump.
However, Republicans and MAGA supporters eviscerated the bishop.
“The person giving this sermon should be added to the deportation list,” wrote Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) on social media.
Budde’s sermon was a forceful rebuttal of Trump’s approach to immigration: He has pledged to enforce the largest deportation in history, with “millions and millions of illegals must be deported,” he has said.
U.S. First Lady Melania and U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance with U.S. Second Lady attended the National Day of Prayer Service.
END
It is untrue that she blasted him. She quite calmly and kindly asked him to have mercy on those who are different and those who, rightly or wrongly, are afraid right now. In her whole sermon, with context, she also specifically said that millions of Americans have put their trust in Pres. Trump and she asked that he live up to that trust with humility and mercy. Those are essential Christian values.