During the inaugural prayer service, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde urged President Donald Trump to “have mercy” on undocumented migrants and LGBTQ kids, and right-wing media responded by calling her a “fake bishop” with “deranged political beliefs,” saying her sermon was “heretical” and “satanic,” and claiming she was “forcing left-wing platitudes down everyone’s throat.”
Andrea Austria / Media Matters
Research/Study
Right-wing media attack Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde after she asks Trump to “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared”
Written by Gideon Taaffe
Published
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Budde’s comments about mercy provoked Trump
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- The bishop leading the inaugural prayer service at Washington National Cathedral made a plea to Trump to “have mercy” on behalf of LGBTQ kids and migrants. “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” said Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C. “There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families. Some who fear for their lives.” She added, “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. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues.” [NBC News, 1/21/25]
- Trump attacked Budde the next day and demanded an apology. He wrote on Truth Social: “The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater. … She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart. She failed to mention the large number of illegal migrants that came into our Country and killed people. Many were deposited from jails and mental institutions. It is a giant crime wave that is taking place in the USA.” [Rolling Stone, 1/22/25]
- Appearing on The View, Budde clarified that her responsibility “was to reflect, to pray with the nation for unity” and that her remarks were an attempt to “say we need to treat everyone with dignity, and we need to be merciful.” She stated, “I also realized that unity requires a certain degree of mercy, mercy and compassion and understanding and so knowing that a lot of people, as I said, in our country right now, are really scared, I wanted to take the opportunity in the context of that of service for unity, to say we need to treat everyone with dignity, and we need to be merciful.” She also said she would be open to a one-on-one with Trump, saying, “I could assure him and everyone listening that I would be as respectful as I would with any person, and certainly of his office, for which I have great deal of respect.” [Deadline, 1/22/25]
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Right-wing media attacked Budde’s sermon as “heretical” and “satanic”
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- Fox News host Laura Ingraham called Budde a “radical leftist.” Ingraham claimed it was “not compassionate to have an open border, violent crime, murders of Americans, human and drug trafficking that kills hundreds of thousands and brutalizes others.” [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 1/21/25]
- Fox News’ Sean Hannity said the bishop “made the service about her very own deranged political beliefs with a disgraceful prayer full of fearmongering and division.” He then dismissed her concerns about the demonization of migrants, saying, “If you come in the country illegally, you didn't respect our laws, our borders, and our sovereignty, that would make you a criminal by definition.” [Fox News, Hannity, 1/21/25]
- Daily Wire host Matt Walsh said that “hell exists for people like Mariann” and called her “exhibit A for why women should not be pastors, priests, or bishops." He added that “she would rather engage in emotional blackmail and blasphemy than preach the word of God” and said that trans kids “fear for their lives because they've been exploited and brainwashed by wicked witches like Mariann.” [The Daily Wire, The Matt Walsh Show, 1/22/25]
- Walsh also said that, “If evil had a face and a haircut, this is what it would look like. It would look exactly like Mariann Budde, the fake bishop of Washington for the Episcopal church.” [The Daily Wire, The Matt Walsh Show, 1/22/25]
- Fox anchor Martha MacCallum said Budde’s call for compassion was “really a gotcha moment on her part, which I find very uncharitable.” She added, “I thought it was massively inappropriate.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 1/22/25]
- The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles belittled the bishop, calling her a “fake priestess lady” and her sermon “heretical.” He said, “It is no wonder that a woman who would mistake herself for a bishop might also confuse a foreign national for an American citizen, or even a little boy for a little girl.” [The Daily Wire, The Michael Knowles Show, 1/22/25]
- Fox & Friends co-host Lawrence Jones said Budde “went into some political radical leftist” rhetoric and suggested she “speak to any of the families that were killed by illegals” about mercy. Co-host Ainsley Earhardt declared that people who share Budde’s opinion “are reading the whole border situation in the wrong way,” adding, “It’s not that he [Trump] doesn’t have compassion. … Everyone is God’s child. It’s not about that. It’s about taxpayers paying so much for other people — we’re pouring into the tax base and they’re giving that money to people who are not here legally and are not contributing.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 1/22/25]
- Fox host Jesse Watters said Budde is “the new face of the resistance: woke bishops and insufferable blue hairs.” After playing the clip of Budde asking Trump to have mercy, Watters joked, “I’m sorry, is that the National Cathedral or the DNC?” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 1/22/25]
- Fox’s Will Cain accused Budde of using “a house of worship as a place to project her own politics." He continued: “It wasn't honest. She wasn't seeking to have a conversation out of real earnestness or concern. I think most offensive, Ainsley, is that her concerns were so cliched and wrong. It’s like it was written by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I mean, it wasn’t sincere in that no one believes LGBTQ kids should be fearing for their lives today. There’s no grounding for that. To go on from that to talking about the human dignity of illegal immigrants, which is not something disputed by Donald Trump — simply their right to remain in America — shows a real dishonesty, and from the pulpit, from that bishop.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 1/22/25]
- Right-wing Rumble host Dan Bongino called Budde a “fake bishop” who was “forcing left-wing platitudes down everyone's throat on a moment of supposed national unity.” [Rumble, The Dan Bongino Show, 1/22/25]
- Right-wing podcaster Steven Crowder called the bishop’s sermon “satanic.” He then attacked her for “chastizing a sitting president over things that he’s never done and threats of actions that will never happen.” [Louder with Crowder, 1/22/25]
- Anti-LGBTQ social media account Libs of TikTok posted a photo of Budde and wrote, “This is the Bishop who lectured Trump today with trans propaganda. Always the eyes.” [Twitter/X, 1/21/25]
- Right-wing radio host Bill Mitchell shared Libs of TikTok’s post and commented, “Good Lord. This Bishop looks demon-possessed.” [Twitter/X, 1/21/25]
- Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk called Budde’s sermon “disgraceful,” adding, “She embarrassed herself.” [Twitter/X, 1/21/25]
- White nationalist podcaster Stew Peters demanded, “Why does the Episcopal Church allow bull-dykes as bishops?” [Telegram, 1/21/25]