It’s been less than a week since Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde confronted President Donald Trump, but those in her inner circle are “universally concerned” about her wellbeing after she received a flood of “violent speech.”
At the National Prayer Service last Tuesday, Budde pleaded with the newly sworn-in president to “have mercy” on vulnerable communities, including LGBTQ+ youth and migrants as he steps into his second term. While some praised the bishop as “fearless” and “brave,” Trump took to Truth Social the following day to slam her as “nasty” and as a “Radical Left hard line Trump hater.”
His remarks seemed to have ignited his followers. One Republican Congressman even called for the bishop, a U.S. citizen, to be deported.
Budde told the New Yorker that she personally doesn’t pay much attention to the critics, but those around her have expressed concern.
“To keep my own sanity, I don’t spend a lot of time reading the comments. But those who have been monitoring them are concerned about the level of violent speech that is embedded in them,” the bishop said.
“But those who have been monitoring them are concerned about the level of violent speech that is embedded in them,” Budde said. “But I honestly can’t say if it’s worse. I didn’t read them in 2020, either. Actually, my assistant at the time just said, ‘Yeah, you’re not reading these. You’re not reading these. You can only read these.’
“She only gave me the ones that were supportive. But I said, ‘O.K., what’s the ratio?’ And she said, ‘Oh, it’s about 50-50’.”
Budde admitted that she didn’t know if the ratio was 50-50. But, she said there is a state of fear in the country’s air about violence. She said the U.S. has become more violent in its rhetoric and that has given way to more “unguarded speech.”
The 2020 she referenced harkened back to her previous clashes with Trump. In 2020, she wrote an op-ed in the New York Times saying she was “outraged” by Trump’s photo-op outside of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Lafayette Square after ordering Black Lives Matter protesters to be cleared from there.
At the National Prayer Service on Tuesday, standing in front of Trump, the bishop asked him to “have mercy” on those in the country who are “scared.”
“There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives,” she said. “Millions have put their trust in you. In the name of our God, I ask you, have mercy on people in our country who are scared now.”
Speaking about immigrants, she continued: “They may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals.”
The bishop told The New Yorker about why she decided to address Trump, even though she didn’t count on him really listening to her.
“As a communication technique, family-systems people will often tell us that, if you really want someone in your circle to hear you, let them overhear you talk to somebody else,” she told the New Yorker. The bishop was “counting on people overhearing me talk to Trump in a way that would communicate to them,” she said.
With roughly 1,000 people in the cathedral that morning, “I was guessing that there were parents in the room of children who were gay and lesbian, or maybe even transgender, or they themselves were gay or lesbian, so they would know something of the struggle. I was trying to humanize, to bring us into that same spirit of when we get to know each other, we’re more alike than we are different,” she said.
She also aimed to humanize immigrants by evoking real images of them rather than speaking about them in broad strokes.
“In speaking of the immigrant population—and particularly those who are arriving into this country and taking on the tasks that keep our society going, often behind the scenes or at off hours, and doing really back-breaking labor—to say that these are people that many of us know” Budde said. “I wanted to bring them into the room, to help evoke the images of actual people, rather than broad categories or characterizations.”
But Trump didn’t seem to take her message to heart.
In his first week back in the White House, the president already signed executive orders targeting transgender, nonbinary and intersex people and immigrants.
One policy recognizes only two sexes — male and female — while another rolled back Biden-era “diversity, equity, and inclusion” programs.
Targeting immigrants, Trump declared a “national emergency” at the southern border, empowering him to deploy thousands of troops there. Some troops have already been ordered to be sent to the border. Trump also ended birthright citizenship — an order that 22 states and a group of pregnant women have already challenged in court.
