White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt accused the Episcopal bishop who told President Trump in a sermon to show ‘mercy’ to gay and transgender children and illegal migrants of spewing ‘lies’ and ‘weaponizing’ the pulpit.

The extraordinary pushback from the White House lawn came after the president unloaded on Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde online, accusing her of giving a ‘nasty’ sermon that he also called ‘boring’ while demanding an apology.

Leavitt told Fox News’ The Story with MacCallum Budde should have delivered a ‘unifying and bipartisan’ service at the National Cathedral in Washington but instead chose to ‘weaponize’ the pulpit. That is a word that Trump allies use to attack prosecutors and government officials who have used their posts to go after Trump and MAGA forces.

‘And I was there with President Trump and everybody there was shocked and mortified by the disturbing comments from this bishop, who chose to weaponize the pulpit,’ Leavitt said. ‘She had an opportunity to pray over the President and the Vice President and their families were sitting in the first pews, and she spoke about truth, which was very ironic, because words later, she spewed lies,’ Leavitt said.

Her remarks appeared to confirm the shocked reaction of Vice President JD Vance, who suddenly turned to wife Usha during the sermon as it was underway. She also took issue with passages in the sermon.   

‘She said that President Trump has called illegal or immigrants criminals. That’s not true. He calls illegal immigrants criminals because in fact, they are criminals. By definition. If you break our nation’s laws, you are a criminal,’ she said, in an interview where she confirmed Trump was sending 1,500 members of the military to the border.

Then she tried to counter the bishop’s message that LGBT+ people were afraid under Trump, by pointing to Trump’s nomination of Scott Bessent for Treasury secretary. Trump also inked a new executive order saying the government would recognize only two sexes.

‘She also talked about how LGBTQ people in this country maybe be disappointed that’s also a lie. In fact, I just saw Scott Bessent in the West Wing of the White House on his way to meet with President Trump, and he is the highest ranking LGBTQ official in United States history, appointed by the President in the Oval Office right now,’ Leavitt said.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt (C) blasted the sermon that Bishop Mariann Budde delivered to President Trump and other dignitaries calling for ‘mercy’ and saying marginalized groups ‘fear for their lives’

She spoke after the bishop who scolded Trump responded to him calling her ‘nasty’ and ‘not smart’ after she encouraged him to show mercy to LGBTQ+ people and illegal migrants.

The Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde said she wanted her sermon to, ‘counter the narrative that is so divisive and polarizing in which people are being harmed’, during an appearance on The View.

She declined to address his calls for an apology, but said she would consider a one-on-one meeting if the invitation came from the president personally.

Budde added that she has a ‘great amount of respect’ for Trump’s office and promised to remain ‘respectful’ if a meeting occurred.

The Bishop of Washington spoke out after she used a prayer service to make an emotional plea to the president, stating that many in the marginalized groups she named, ‘fear for their lives’.

Her words fell on deaf ears however and Trump immediately hit back on Truth Social, demanding an apology and branding her a ‘Radical Left hardline Trump hater’.

‘She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way,’ Trump fumed. ‘She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.’ 

Leavitt said ‘everybody there was shocked and mortified by the disturbing comments from this bishop’

The Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budd responded to Donald Trump calling her ‘nasty’ and ‘not smart’ after she scolded him during a prayer service

Budde said she wanted to ‘counter the narrative that is so divisive and polarizing in which people are being harmed’, during an appearance on The View 

It was an assessment that The View’s hosts clearly disagreed with, as they spent much of the segment fawning over the ‘fearless’ Reverend’s ‘demure and mindful’ tone during the sermon.

At one point host Sara Haines read much of Trump’s Truth Social post aloud to Budde, who appeared briefly stunned by its contents.

She went on to caution against ‘the culture of contempt that immediately rushes to the worst possible interpretations of what people are saying’.

‘I was trying to speak a truth in a way that was as respectful and kind as I could and to bring in other voices,’ Budde said.

The day before she had begged Trump to grant ‘mercy upon the people in our country that are scared now’, invoking the bible as she said ‘God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger.’

‘There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives,’ she continued.

Moving onto illegal immigrants, a central issue on Trump’s victorious presidential platform, Budde urged him not to follow through with his mass deportation plans.

‘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 might not be citizens or have the proper documentation,’ she said.

‘The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. I ask you to have mercy Mr. President on those in communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away.’

The View’s Ana Navarro fawned over the ‘demure’ and ‘mindful’ way that the Reverend delivered the sermon

Trump didn’t immediately react to the pointed message shared by Budde during a service at the National Cathedral in Washington

The president later branded Budde a hater in an explosive post on Truth Social

 Budde maintained that she just wanted to ‘speak her truth’ in as ‘respectful and kind a way as possible’, but did not address his calls for an apology

Trump didn’t react to the pointed message as he sat staring at Budde, although others in his group, including new Vice President JD Vance, wore a more telling expression on their faces.

Speaking to reporters at the White House shortly after the service, Trump was more reserved than his Truth Social rebuke, but said briefly that he thought Budde ‘could have been much better.’

He later blasted the ‘boring’ sermon and refuted her statements about illegal migrants.

‘She failed to mention the large number of illegal migrants that came into our Country and killed people,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.

‘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!’

Budde, 65, is the first woman appointed to lead the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.

The married mother-of-two adult sons has served as Bishop of Washington since 2011 and was previously a rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The ‘unapologetically liberal’ Reverend has made no secret of her left-leaning views

During her tenure, two quilts gifted to her congregation by the White Earth Reservation were stolen and Budde chose to wait a day before filing a police report as she hoped ‘humanity would prevail’, the Star Tribune reports. 

The ‘unapologetically liberal’ Reverend has made no secret of her Democrat views and previously oversaw a convention in the diocese that called for the disuse of gendered pronouns for God.

She is pro-gay marriage and vocal in her support for the Black Lives Matter movement.