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22nd January 2025
08:08am GMT
A bishop has asked Donald Trump to show mercy to LGBT people and migrants, in a sermon with the new President present.
The moment came in the inaugural prayer service sermon in which the Episcopal bishop of Washington made a direct appeal to Donald Trump in the audience to "have mercy upon" communities across America.
The plea came after many of these people are set to be targeted by strict immigration and LGBTQ+ policies.
The Right Rev Mariann Budde delivered her sermon in Washington national cathedral and pled her case with the Donald Trump alongside Melania Trump and JD Vance.
Budde said Trump had "felt the providential hand of a loving God,” which was likely in reference to Trump’s inaugural address, in which he declared that God had saved him from an assassin’s bullet to “make America great again”.
She added: “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy on the people in our country who are scared now.”
Referencing expected changes to immigration and LGBTQ+ policies, Budde said: “There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in both Democratic, Republican and independent families who fear for their lives.”
She said: "The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes, and are good neighbours. They are faithful members of our churches, mosques and synagogues, gurdwara and temples.
"Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were once strangers in this land.”
The sermon finished with Vice-President JD Vance shaking his head.
Meanwhile, Trump got his chance to respond as he was later asked what he thought of the sermon to which he replied that it was "not too exciting".
"I didn’t think it was a good service, no,” he said. “They could do much better.”
The sermon made up part of an interfaith prayer service which is a post inauguration day tradition in The States.
It is not the first time, however, that Budde has locked horns with Trump.
In 2020, she hit back at the President in his first time when Trump appeared in front of St John’s Epsicopal church in Washington, where he held up a Bible after federal officers had used force to clear peaceful protesters demonstrating over the death of George Floyd in 2020.
Budde has already faced backlash from Trump supporters, with Georgia congressman Mike Collins saying she “should be added to the deportation list” for her words.
