President Donald Trump's inaugural prayer service did not go as expected on Tuesday, when the vicar leading the ceremony asked the new US leader to have mercy on undocumented migrant workers and the LGBTQ community.
In a service also attended by Vice President JD Vance and many members of the Trump family, the Right Rev Mariann Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, addressed the President directly during a prayer.
“Millions have put their trust in you,” she said. “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.”
Rev Budde said migrant workers' children fear their parents will be taken away, referring to Mr Trump's promise for mass deportations.
She said members of the LGBTQ community fear for their lives, after Mr Trump issued an executive order to withdraw protection for transgender people and ended diversity, equity and inclusion programmes in the federal government.
Mr Trump and his entourage sat stony-faced throughout the prayer. When he returned to the White House, the President was asked about the sermon.
“Not too exciting, was it?” he said as he walked with staff towards the Oval Office. “I didn’t think it was a good service. They could do much better.”
The Washington National Cathedral service was largely focused on national unity. In her sermon, Rev Budde said they gathered “to pray for unity as a people and a nation – not for agreement, political or otherwise – but for the kind of unity that fosters community across diversity and division.”
She added: “Unity is not partisan.”
