section_path: Career/Episcopacy/2025 presidential inauguration service
section_name: 2025 presidential inauguration service
paragraph_text: 2025 presidential inauguration service
  
  On January 21, 2025, the day after Donald Trump's second inauguration as president, Budde delivered the homily at the interfaith prayer service traditionally held at the Washington National Cathedral after each presidential inauguration. Also in attendance were the new vice president, JD Vance; House speaker Mike Johnson; and Pete Hegseth, Trump's nominee for defense secretary. In the sermon, Budde addressed Trump, who was sitting in the first pew, urging him to show mercy and compassion to vulnerable people, saying, "Millions have put their trust in you. And as you told the nation yesterday, 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." Budde specifically cited the LGBTQ+ communities, immigrants, and refugees fleeing from war in their countries.
  
  After the service, Trump disparaged Budde as a "so-called Bishop" and "Radical Left hard line Trump hater" on his social media website Truth Social. Trump called the service "very boring" and demanded an apology from Budde and the Episcopal Church. Trump allies also attacked Budde; evangelical pastor Robert Jeffress condemned the bishop for having "insulted rather than encouraged our great president" while Republican congressman Mike Collins said that Budde "should be added to the deportation list". According to Baptist News Global, Megan Basham and other far-right religious figures used the incident to press their views against the ordination of women as pastors. Budde's remarks were welcomed by civil rights advocate Bernice King, Pope Francis 's biographer Austen Ivereigh and other public figures, including the Episcopal Church's senior bishop, Sean Rowe, who said that "a plea for mercy, a recognition of the stranger in our midst, is core to the faith... but it's not bound to political ideology".
  
  When asked by Time ' s Brian Bennett about Trump's reaction to her message, Budde said, "I don't hate President Trump. I strive not to hate anyone and I dare say that I am not of the 'radical left' either, whatever that means. That is not who I am." When asked if she would heed Trump's demand for an apology, she replied, "I am not going to apologize for asking for mercy for others." Budde described her sermon as fairly mild, with the intended message to the new president that "The country has been entrusted to you. And one of the qualities of a leader is mercy." Budde said that unity requires mercy, humility, and the upholding of human dignity; she warned against America's "culture of contempt" as well as the harms of polarizing narratives.
  
  D.C. Police investigated threatening phone calls made to Budde in the aftermath of the service.
  
  On January 21, 2025, the day after Donald Trump's second inauguration as president, Budde delivered the homily at the interfaith prayer service traditionally held at the Washington National Cathedral after each presidential inauguration. Also in attendance were the new vice president, JD Vance; House speaker Mike Johnson; and Pete Hegseth, Trump's nominee for defense secretary. In the sermon, Budde addressed Trump, who was sitting in the first pew, urging him to show mercy and compassion to vulnerable people, saying, "Millions have put their trust in you. And as you told the nation yesterday, 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." Budde specifically cited the LGBTQ+ communities, immigrants, and refugees fleeing from war in their countries.
  
  After the service, Trump disparaged Budde as a "so-called Bishop" and "Radical Left hard line Trump hater" on his social media website Truth Social. Trump called the service "very boring" and demanded an apology from Budde and the Episcopal Church. Trump allies also attacked Budde; evangelical pastor Robert Jeffress condemned the bishop for having "insulted rather than encouraged our great president" while Republican congressman Mike Collins said that Budde "should be added to the deportation list". According to Baptist News Global, Megan Basham and other far-right religious figures used the incident to press their views against the ordination of women as pastors. Budde's remarks were welcomed by civil rights advocate Bernice King, Pope Francis 's biographer Austen Ivereigh and other public figures, including the Episcopal Church's senior bishop, Sean Rowe, who said that "a plea for mercy, a recognition of the stranger in our midst, is core to the faith... but it's not bound to political ideology".
  
  When asked by Time ' s Brian Bennett about Trump's reaction to her message, Budde said, "I don't hate President Trump. I strive not to hate anyone and I dare say that I am not of the 'radical left' either, whatever that means. That is not who I am." When asked if she would heed Trump's demand for an apology, she replied, "I am not going to apologize for asking for mercy for others." Budde described her sermon as fairly mild, with the intended message to the new president that "The country has been entrusted to you. And one of the qualities of a leader is mercy." Budde said that unity requires mercy, humility, and the upholding of human dignity; she warned against America's "culture of contempt" as well as the harms of polarizing narratives.
  
  D.C. Police investigated threatening phone calls made to Budde in the aftermath of the service.