Donald Trump faced fresh criticism from an unexpected and powerful voice on Tuesday, January 21, as he attended a national prayer service at Washington National Cathedral.
During the customary visit for new presidents, one of the speakers at the interfaith service, the Right Reverand Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, used her sermon to send a message to Trump, urging compassion for LGBTQ+ people and undocumented migrant workers.
"You have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy on the people in our country who are scared now," said Budde, who has criticized Trump before.
An unsmiling Trump, seated in the front pew for the customary inaugural service next to his wife Melania, told a reporter afterward what he thought of the service: "Not too exciting was it. I didn't think it was a good service. They could do much better."
The US president later took to his Truth Social Platofrm to call the bishop "nasty" and demanded an apology "The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. "She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.... She and her church owe the public an apology!"
Trump issued measures Monday to suspend the arrival of asylum seekers and expel migrants in the country illegally. He also decreed that only two sexes – male and female, but not transgender – will be recognized.