Bishop Budde urged Donald Trump to ‘have mercy upon’ children and migrants, the President called her ‘nasty’

Donald Trump has demanded an apology from a Bishop who implored him to “have mercy upon” immigrants and LGBTQ+ people in the US.

Bishop Mariann E Budde won over a legion of fans — churchgoers and not — after she bravely made the plea as Mr Trump attended a prayer service at the National Cathedral the day after he was sworn-in as the 47th President of the United States.

The leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, Budde, 65, is the first woman to serve as the spiritual leader of the diocese — a role she has held since 2011.

She appealed directly to Mr Trump, who had only a day before signed a raft of executive orders cracking down on immigration and repealing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

“Mr President, millions have put their trust in you,” she told the President.

“As you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.”

She said there were LGBTQ+ children who “fear for their lives” and immigrants who “may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority... are not criminals.”

“They pay taxes and are good neighbours, they are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues and temples,” she added.

“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.”

“Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were once strangers in this land.”

During the sermon, which was televised, Mr Trump stared blankly at Budde as his Vice President J.D. Vance was seen looking quizzically at his wife sitting beside him. Trump’s children and in-laws could be seen behind their father sharing similar, puzzled looks.

A reporter asked Mr Trump what he thought of the service as he left the building, he replied: “I didn’t think it was a good service, no.”

Early on Wednesday morning, local time, the 78-year-old took to his social media platform Truth Social with a lengthy condemnation of the sermon.

He demanded an apology from “the so-called Bishop” who he declared was a “Radical Left hard line Trump hater”, describing her sermon as “boring” and “uninspiring”

“She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way,” he said. “She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.”

While some Republican figures echoed Trump’s condemnation of the sermon, elsewhere Budde was widely praised for her courageous plea to the President.

Bernice King, daughter of the civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr and the CEO of the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, said the sermon was “an appeal to his humanity and an appeal on behalf of humanity”.

Reverend Caitlin Frazier, the assistant rector at St Mark’s Episcopal church on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, said she was “proud to hear Bishop Budde speak the truths that Jesus calls us to speak”.

Austen Ivereigh, a biographer of Pope Francis, said that Budde spoke with “apostolic courage” to the new President and his deputy.

“She named the truth their policies deny,” he wrote on X.

“Their expressions of fury and discomfort suggest she nailed it.”

Pope Francis himself called Trump’s plans for mass deportations “a disgrace”, The New York Times reports.

Bishop Budde had previously clashed with Mr Trump after he appeared in front of St John’s Episcopal church in Washington DC to hold a Bible for a photo as riot police shot teargas into peaceful protesters demonstrating against the death of George Floyd in 2020.

In an opinion piece in the Times, she said the President “used sacred symbols to cloak himself in the mantle of spiritual authority, while espousing positions antithetical to the Bible that he held in his hands”.