Trump looks unhappy as reverend calls for “mercy” for immigrants and trans youth

President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance looked visibly irritated during the national prayer service at Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday when the sermon took a political turn.

Among the religious leaders who spoke was the Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde, who had been a vocal critic of Trump and the US government following the death of George Floyd.

On Trump’s first full day back in office, Budde, of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, gave a sermon focused on “unity,” but his comments softened when he brought up immigrants and LGBTQ youth.

The reverend spoke directly to the president, saying, “Let me make one last plea, Mr. President, millions of people have placed their trust in you, and as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the hand providential of a loving God. name of our God, I ask you to have mercy on the people of our country who are afraid transgender children in Democratic and Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives.”

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“And the people, the people who harvest our crops and clean our office buildings, who work on the poultry farms and know about the packing plants, who wash the dishes in their restaurants and work the shift night in hospitals, they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors,” Budde said. “They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues … and temples.”

The reverend asked Trump to have “mercy on those in our communities whose children fear their parents will be taken away, and to help those fleeing war zones of persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome, our God teaches us that we must be merciful to a stranger.”

The vice president and second lady leaned over and whispered to each other during the sermon.

At the beginning of his remarks, Budde began to “pray for unity as a people and a nation, not for an agreement, political or otherwise, but for the kind of unity that fosters community through diversity and division, a unity that serves the common good.”

“Unity, in this sense, is a threshold requirement for people to live freely and together in a free society,” he said.

“Rather,” Budde continued, “oneness is a way of being with one another, and encompassing and respecting differences that teaches us to hold multiple perspectives and life experiences as valid and worthy of respect they allow our communities to genuinely care for each other, even when we disagree.”

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He went on to say, “Those of us gathered here are not naïve about the realities of politics when power and wealth and competing interests are at stake, when views of what America should be are in conflict. When there there are strong opinions everywhere, a spectrum of possibilities and a distinctly different understanding of what the right course of action is, there will be winners and losers when making the token decisions that shape the course of public policy and the prioritization of resources”.

“Not everyone’s prayers will be answered in the way we would like. But for some, the loss of their hopes and dreams will be much more than politics,” he said, adding that “every religion represented here asserts the right of the birth of all people. As children of our one God. In public discourse, honoring the dignity of others means refusing to mock, discount, demonize those with whom we differ, instead of respect, respectfully, mark our differences and, whenever possible, look for points in common”.

In his inaugural address, Trump assured that there is “two genders, male and female”, to thunderous applause.

“I will also end the government’s policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life,” she said. “We will forge a colorblind and merit-based society.”

President has promised mass deportations of criminal illegal immigrants and sparked more controversy by signing an executive order removal of birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants.

It’s not the first time that Budde has made his left-wing political views known. A 2020 video clip shows Budde talking to an ABC News reporter while protesting in Washington, DC

“It’s a message for a call for justice, for swift justice for George Floyd,” said Budde, who was wearing a face mask. “For systemic justice for all the brown and black people who have been brought under the knee of this country in a way that we’ve witnessed time and time again.” He went on to say, “This is wrong, and this uprising – this spontaneous uprising of people, mostly half my age or younger, are the ones we should be listening to.”

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Asked about Trump, Budde said, “I’m done talking to President Trump. We have to replace President Trump.”

Well, Budd testified before Congress regarding a June 1, 2020 confrontation between protesters and law enforcement near St. John’s Church in Lafayette Square.

He said that “our government resorted to acts of violence against peaceful protesters” and said that Episcopal Church he believes that issues of “racial and social justice are the main tenants of the Christian faith.”

Budde also condemned Trump for holding up a Bible outside the church after the riots. Testifying virtually at the time, he told a House committee, “When the president displayed a Bible outside our church as if to claim the mantle of spiritual authority over what had just happened, I knew I had to speak. Nowhere does the Bible condone the use of violence against the innocent.”

trump he visited this same church again Monday morning before being sworn in as the 47th president.

Sarah Tobianski of Fox News contributed to this report