Donald Trump Attacks Bishop For Confronting Him In Prayer Service Moment That Went Viral

The return of Donald Trump is readily evident today with reporters once again waking up to an angry presidential social media post, this time over a moment that went viral.

On Tuesday, at an inauguration prayer service at Washington National Cathedral, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde confronted Trump during her sermon, “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives. And the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals, 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.”

Afterward, Trump told reporters of the event that he “didn’t think it was a good service,” an obvious criticism of Budde’s comments.

In a Truth Social post at 12:39 a.m. ET this morning, Trump called Budde “a Radical Left hard line Trump hater.”

“She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way,” Trump wrote. “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. Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was a very boring and uninspiring one. She is not very good at her job! She and her church owe the public an apology!”

But Trump has long argued that religious liberty is under attack, and in his first term he issued executive orders to protect religious freedom. But his rhetoric has often focused on conservative evangelicals, a core voting block, while in his 2016 campaign he called for a ban on Muslims entering the country.

Some of Trump’s allies, who have long complained that the religious right often comes under attack for their beliefs, were quick to pounce on Budde’s remarks, even though she is a prominent religious leader in the nation’s capital. On Fox News, Laura Ingraham said that at the service, Trump and his family “were forced to listen to the rantings of a lunatic,” as the chyron labeled Budde a “woke bishop.”