Donald Trump is demanding an apology from the bishop who implored the president to show mercy to LGBTQ+ people and migrants during a post-inauguration prayer service — an act that Massachusetts’ attorney general says should inspire those feeling scared.

Trump called on the Right Rev. Mariann Budde and the National Cathedral to apologize early Wednesday morning as clips of Budde’s sermon went viral on social media.

“The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social, just after midnight. “She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.”

Budde asked Trump, sitting in the front row of the cathedral with his family, to “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared” of his presidency.

“There are gay, lesbian, transgender children, Democratic, Republican, independent families — some who fear for their lives,” she said. Budde then highlighted how migrant workers “pay taxes” and are “faithful members” of churches, mosques, synagogues and temples across the country, while children “fear their parents are going to be taken away.”

“The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings,” Budde continued, “who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking 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.”

In his Truth Social post, Trump said the bishop “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.”

“Apart from her inappropriate statements,” the president added of Budde, “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!”

Fresh off of taking her first swing at the new Trump administration’s policies, Bay State AG Andrea Campbell encouraged “everyone … to listen to the Rev. Budd who delivered a very powerful sermon … to the president.”

Campbell and Democratic counterparts from 17 other states filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging Trump’s executive order ending the Constitutional guarantee of citizenship for people born in the U.S.

“You can see, he was very uncomfortable with it,” Campbell said of Trump’s reaction to Budde’s sermon, “reminding him to have mercy on those in our communities, to really not only demonstrate the character of the God that I serve but the love and the compassion and the mercy as well, which I think in this season of time is critically important.”

“She exercised courage to stand up and to speak out, not to be an enabler, to share and to speak out,” the AG added. “All of us have the ability to do that as well as take action.”

Campbell’s comments came during a forum that Sen. Ed Markey hosted Tuesday night, drawing liberal and progressive speakers, including Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, along with thousands of concerned listeners.

“We must be resolute in resisting the worst of Trump,” Markey said. “We have to have a call to action.”

Budde, appearing on Wednesday’s edition of ABC’s The View, did not apologize for the remarks she made in her public sermon and said Trump has never invited her into a “one-on-one conversation,” an opportunity that she would welcome but it “would have to come from him.”

“My responsibility that morning, yesterday morning, was to reflect, to pray with the nation for unity,” Budde said. “And then I also realized that unity requires a certain degree of mercy … knowing that a lot of people … in our country right now, are really scared, I wanted to take the opportunity … to say we need to treat everyone with dignity, and we need to be merciful.”

“I was trying to counter the narrative that is so, so divisive and polarizing and in which people, real people, are being harmed,” she added.

Budde has joined other cathedral leaders in criticizing Trump previously, rebuking his “racialized rhetoric” and blaming him for inciting violence on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to keep him in power.

Budde was “outraged” in 2020 after Trump staged an appearance in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church,  near the White House. He held up a Bible after the area had been cleared of protesters.

Campbell continued to express her support for Budde on Wednesday, posting on X: “As a believer & woman of faith, I’m compelled to see the humanity in everyone. Someone’s political party, immigration status, gender, or sexuality shouldn’t determine if they deserve compassion. Bishop Budde showed courage in naming that & we’re all called to be such an example.”

The Massachusetts Democratic Party echoed that appreciation: “Thank you, Rev. Budde, for speaking such necessary truths. Your compassion and courage is an example to us all.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Bishop Mariann Budde (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
Massachusetts AG Andrea Campbell says she supports the bishop who asked President Trump to have mercy on LGBTQ people and migrants. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)