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Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde responded to President Donald Trump’s criticism of comments she made during her sermon at the Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday.
On Trump’s first full day of his second term, Budde, of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, delivered a sermon focused on “unity,” also targeting specific comments directly at Trump on issues like illegal immigration and LGBTQ youth. Trump and Vice President JD Vance sat stone-faced as she urged Trump to “have mercy,” and the president indicated to reporters afterward he didn’t care for the remarks.
“It was a very muted response,” Budde said of Trump’s reaction in an interview on CNN Tuesday. “I keep my expectations low whenever I preach. I can‘t always measure impact by body language or even what people say afterwards. And so, I have to let all of that go. I speak from what I believe I‘ve been given to say and let it go from there.”
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When asked about the service, Trump gave his quick reaction to reporters at the White House.
“Not too exciting, was it?” Trump said. “I didn’t think it was a good service, no. They can do much better.”
“It was a respectful response,” Budde said. “He didn’t like it. He said so. He said we could do better. Some of the other comments I’ve received haven’t been as kind or have been as muted, shall we say. And one of the things I was trying to get across is that we can actually have these conversations in a respectful way.”
Budde also explained the context of her comments directed at Trump.
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“I was looking at the president because I was speaking directly to him,” Budde said. “I was also, frankly as you do in every sermon, speaking to everyone who was listening through that one-on-one conversation with the president, reminding us all, that in the people that are frightened in our country, the two groups of people that I mentioned, are our fellow human beings and that they 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.”
“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 there is room for mercy,” she continued. “There is room for a broader compassion. We don’t need to portray with a broad cloth, in the harshest of terms, some of the most vulnerable people in our society.”
Trump later ramped up his rhetoric against Budde in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday.
“The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater,” he wrote. “She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way.”
Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.