Donald Trump was forced on Tuesday to sit through a sermon by a bishop begging him to have “mercy” on gay people and poor immigrants as the Republican celebrated the start to his second term as US president.
Trump scowled as the Washington National Cathedral’s Mariann Edgar Budde pleaded the case from the pulpit for LGBTQ people and undocumented migrants – two groups that Trump targeted with executive orders within hours of being sworn in on Monday.
Trump had gone to the traditional presidential service to commemorate his inauguration and was clearly not expecting the criticism.
“I ask you to have mercy, Mr President,” the bishop said softly, evoking the “fear” that she said is felt across the country.
“There are gay and lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families,” she said.
“The people who pick our farms and clean our office buildings, who labour 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,” she said.
