President Donald Trump attended the National Prayer Service at Washington National Cathedral for his first day in office, sparking controversy with his response to the minister’s sermon on protecting immigrants and respecting gay rights.
Trump had described the minister as being “nasty” and called the prayer service “boring” and “uninspiring.”
Trump’s Illegal Immigration & Two Gender Declaration
A day after declaring in his inauguration speech that there were only two genders recognised in America, and signing executive orders to crack down on immigrants, Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde pleaded with Trump, from the pulpit, to show mercy on people who were “scared” of what is to come.
“There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives,” Bishop Budde had said.
On Monday, Trump also declared a sweeping immigration crackdown in the U.S, tasking America’s military with aiding border security, issuing a sweeping ban on asylum and taking steps to restrict citizenship for children born on U.S. soil.
To this, Budde also made an emotional case for immigrants, with the statement:
“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 … may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals,” she said.
“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.”
President Trump’s reaction
Bishop Brudde’s plea and remarks had not convinced Trump who dismissed the sermon as “not too exciting” when asked for a reaction.
However, after the event went viral on social media several hours later, the USpresident weighed in on the National Prayer Service sermon again, via his Truth Social platform with scathing words about Budde.
Trump had called her a “so-called Bishop”, further describing her as a “Radical Left hard line Trump hater” who owed the American public an apology.
Billionaire Elon Musk, an ardent Trump ally, also lashed at Budde’s remarks in a post on his social media platform, X saying, “She got the woke mind virus real bad.”
Musk is the father of a transgender daughter, Vivian Wilson, with whom he is estranged. Wilson in 2022 filed a court petition to change her name, saying: “I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.”
