Donald Trump is not often forced to listen to those who disagree with him, and when the newly inaugurated president is confronted with his critics, he tends to unravel. The Republican’s debate meltdowns, for example, have become the stuff of legend.
But on the first full day of his second term, Trump attended a national prayer service in Washington, D.C., where he sat and listened to the bishop of the local Episcopal Diocese. As my MSNBC colleague Clarissa-Jan Lim noted, the Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde spoke truth to power, urging the president to reconsider his attacks on marginalized communities.
After returning to the White House, a reporter asked Trump for his reaction to the sermon. At least initially, he offered relatively muted criticism. “I didn’t think it was a good service,” the Republican said. “They can do much better.”
Hours later, shortly after midnight, the president abandoned subtlety and published a far more forceful rebuke to his social media platform. It read in its entirety:
The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater. She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. 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!
There’s no point in fact-checking every error of fact and judgment in the president’s online harangue. The Rev. Edgar Budde is not a “so-called” bishop; there is no “giant crime wave”; Trump’s line about “mental institutions” has long been ridiculous, etc.
But there was a larger context to his latest online tantrum.
For example, Trump wasn’t the only Republican who was quick to target the bishop. Fox News personalities appeared eager to villainize her — Laura Ingraham described the sermon as “the rantings of a lunatic” — and GOP Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia called for Budde, an American citizen, to be “added to the deportation list.”
Take a moment to imagine what would happen if a progressive House Democrat called for an American religious leader to be kicked out of the country for delivering a sermon he or she disagreed with.
What’s more, whether Republicans appreciate this or not, the more they whined about the bishop’s sermon, the more likely it became that the public would hear what Budde had to say. The Streisand Effect is, after all, a real phenomenon.
Let’s also not forget that for many congressional Republicans, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, there was a Biden-era “scandal” about officials targeting and harassing religious leaders. It was nonsense, of course, though it’s hard not to notice that these same GOP leaders have far less to say about their allies targeting Budde. But perhaps most important was the degree to which these developments shed light on the president’s and his party’s approach to matters of faith. During Trump’s second inaugural, one of his most robust applause lines came midway through his remarks. “We will not forget our country, we will not forget our Constitution, and we will not forget our God,” the Republican said. “Can’t do that.” He added that he believes he was “saved by God to make America great again.” The speech was part of a larger pattern, in which Trump — who has struggled during his political career to speak about religion with comfort or fluency — has cloaked himself in matters of faith to advance his ambitions. The post-inaugural national prayer service, however, shed light on the limits of the president’s approach: Religion must be celebrated, protected, respected and venerated, Trump apparently thinks — just so long as the faith community is telling him what he wants to hear.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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