Donald Trump is demanding a public apology after a bishop’s sermon called for “mercy” towards immigrants and members of the LGBTQ+ community. A speech which did not please the American president at all.
Donald Trump clearly did not appreciate the religious service he attended the day after his inauguration, Tuesday January 21. And for good reason, the sermon delivered by the bishop did not go in the political direction of the 47th president of the United States. “Millions of people have placed their trust in you and in the name of our God, I ask you to be merciful to your people, who are now afraid,” began the Episcopalian bishop of the cathedral. from Washington, Mariann Edgar Budde, facing a closed-faced Donald Trump.
A call for mercy especially aimed at migrants and members of the LGBTQ+ community targeted by repressive measures taken by Donald Trump from the first hours of his mandate. “There are gay, lesbian and trans children from Democratic, Republican and independent families. Some are afraid for their lives,” insisted the bishop before calling for pity on the fate of migrants integrated into American society: “Not everyone may be a citizen, or may not have the right papers, but a vast majority of these immigrants are not criminals.”
It’s hard not to make the connection between the sermon and the presidential decrees signed the day before or Donald Trump’s previous announcements. The Republican reaffirmed that “the official policy of the United States government will be that there are only two sexes, male and female” excluding recognition of transgender people from the possibilities. As for migrants, the American president intends to launch “the largest expulsion program in the history of the United States”
“She’s mean.”
Donald Trump also made the connection and denounced the religious leader’s “relentlessness” towards him on his Truth Social network: “This pseudo-bishop who spoke during the national prayer service Tuesday morning was a left-wing radical, who hates Trump fiercely. Criticizing her for having made a political speech, he described her as an “ungrateful” and “mean” person, whose sermon was “neither convincing nor intelligent”. But more than complaining, the American president demanded an apology: “She and her church owe the public an apology!”
With his self-confident tone, Donald Trump did not waver after the sermon and set out his positions, particularly on the issue of “illegal” migrants who entered our country and killed people. The Republican continues to blame this segment of the population for a “giant crime wave that is occurring in the United States,” an argument that carried him to victory during the presidential campaign. Despite this call for mercy, which visibly annoyed him, Donald Trump seems to think that it is not up to him to review his positions, but up to the bishop to question himself: “In addition to his inappropriate statements, the service was very boring and uninspiring. She’s not very good at her job!
The 65-year-old bishop, the first woman to lead the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, did not deny the political nature of her speech, but she assured the New York Times having written a sermon regardless of the outcome of the presidential election. However, there is a precedent between Mariann Budde and Donald Trump which dates back to 2020: the bishop said she was “outraged” to the same American newspaper at the instrumentalization of the Bible by Donald Trump. At the time, the president held up the book in front of St John’s Church after officers fired tear gas at protesters campaigning for racial justice.