During the inauguration prayer ceremony of President Donald Trump, the pastor asked the newly sworn president to “have mercy” on immigrants and transgender youngsters.
As Trump and Vice President JD Vance watched with their families, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde delivered a sermon at the National Cathedral. “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” she said.
“There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives,” Budde stated. She went on to remind Trump about immigrants, “Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land.”
The pastor’s comments came after a flurry of executive measures targeting transgender Americans and illegal immigrants on the first day of Trump’s second term in office. Trump reversed safeguards for transgender people that former President Joe Biden had set in place when he proclaimed that the federal government only recognises male and female as the two genders.
President Donald Trump ordered the US military to repel “forms of invasion” at the US-Mexico border, proclaimed a national emergency at the southern border, and attempted to terminate birthright citizenship—despite constitutional concerns—in order to further his immigration agenda.
After arriving back at the White House, Trump was questioned about the sermon and responded, “Was not too exciting, was it?”
Trump remarked, “They could do much better,”
