Trump Demands Bishop Apologize for Asking for Mercy for the Marginalized

Donald Trump may have spent his first days in office granting indulgences to the violent rioters who sacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but God forbid he be asked to show mercy to the marginalized groups he plans to scapegoat as president. 

Late Tuesday night, the president demanded an apology from Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde and Washington National Cathedral, after Budde pleaded with Trump to “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” and to “honor the dignity of every human being” during a Tuesday service held in celebration of his inauguration — and which Trump attended. 

“The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater,” the president wrote on Truth Social hours after the service. “She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart. She failed to mention the large number of illegal migrants that came into our Country and killed people. Many were deposited from jails and mental institutions. It is a giant crime wave that is taking place in the USA.” 

Like a child forced to attend Sunday mass, Trump complained that the service was “a very boring and uninspiring one.”

“She is not very good at her job! She and her church owe the public an apology!” he added. 

In a way, it’s understandable that a man who openly strives to surround himself with yes-men and devout sycophants, and who thinks trademarking a Bible is a sign of upstanding Christian devotion, would be upset by a call for reflection. Budde did little more than highlight — in the gentlest rhetoric possible — the fears faced by LGBTQ+ Americans, undocumented immigrants, and their families as Trump returns to power, and ask that he be merciful in his governance. 

“I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear 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 all once strangers in this land,” she said. 
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Budde later told CNN that she felt compelled to intercede for her “fellow human beings,” who have “been portrayed all throughout the political campaign in the harshest of lights.”

“I wanted to counter, as gently as I could, with a reminder of their humanity and their place in our wider community,” she told anchor Erin Burnett. “I was speaking to the president because I felt that he has this moment now where he feels charged and empowered to do what he feels called to do. And I wanted to say, you know, there is room for mercy.” 

“There’s room for a broader compassion,” she added. “We don’t need to portray with a broad cloth in the harshest of terms some of the most vulnerable people in our society who are, in fact, our neighbors, our friends, our children, our friends, children, and so forth.”

The message is clearly difficult for some Republicans to swallow. On Tuesday, Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) demanded that Budde — a citizen — be added to Trump’s “deportation list.”