Bishop Marian Edgar Budde (left) arrives as President Trump looks on at the National Prayer Service at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC, on January 21, 2025.
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Bishop Marian Edgar Budde joins NPR all things considered She was there to discuss her hopes for President Trump’s new administration to show compassion for vulnerable communities, following a sermon she gave on Wednesday.
“I decided to ask him for mercy as gently as I could,” Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, said of his plea to Trump. all things considered“How dangerous is it to talk about these broad categories of people, especially immigrants, as if they’re all criminals or trans kids who are dangerous in some way?”
“To come together as a nation with such rich diversity, we need compassion. We need compassion. We need empathy. And as you’ve heard me say, enumerating it as a broad category… Instead, I decided to appeal to the people.
her appearance is all things considered The bishop’s visit followed a prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral, during which the bishop spoke directly to President Trump, who was seated in the front row alongside Vice President J.D. Vance.
“Mr. President, let me ask you one last thing,” Budde said during his 15-minute sermon.
“Millions of people have put their trust in you, and as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the hand of loving divine providence. In the name of our God. , I ask you to have mercy on the people of our country who are afraid.” Come on,” Budde said, turning his gaze to the president.
Mr. Trump and his allies were quick to criticize Bishop’s comments, with one Republican lawmaker saying: I’m saying He said Budde, who was born in the United States, “should be added to the deportation list.”
Despite the backlash, Budde told NPR that his comments were sincere and that he has no regrets about drawing the president’s attention.
“I don’t hate the president. I pray for him,” Budde said. “I don’t think you need to apologize for your request for mercy.”
“I regret that it caused such a reaction, in the sense that it actually confirmed the very thing I was talking about earlier, which is our tendency to get angry and not talk to each other. “With all due respect,” she continued. “But no, I won’t, I won’t apologize for what I said.”

Budde’s plea comes just a day after President Trump announced a series of executive orders to carry out some of his most controversial campaign promises. amounts to a rejection of transgender identitycalling it a “false claim” Another person seeking abolish birthright citizenshiphas already faced legal challenges.
Budde said these orders and President Trump’s comments stoke fear among society’s most vulnerable people.
“Democrat, Republican and Independent families have gay, lesbian and transgender children, some of whom fear for their lives,” Budde said.
“The people who harvest our crops, clean our office buildings, work in poultry farms and meat packing plants, wash dishes after eating at restaurants, and work the night shift in hospitals are the people who But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals, they pay taxes and are good neighbors.
President Trump criticized Budde’s remarks, I’m writing this after midnight. “The so-called bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Meeting on Tuesday morning was a hard-liner on the radical left who hates Trump,” he said on his Truth Social platform Wednesday morning.
“She brought her church into politics in a very unscrupulous way. Her tone was bad, she wasn’t persuasive, she wasn’t smart.”