Trump’s 'retribution list': Is brave bishop the latest target?

By Michaela Walters (with Emily Maitlis & Jon Sopel)

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s public plea to Donald Trump was a bold move that could see her end up on the president’s infamous ‘retribution list’.

Read time: 3 minutes

In brief:

• A bishop has publicly criticised Donald Trump's policies during a service, calling for compassion towards LGBT+ children and immigrant families while Trump and his family watched.
• Trump responded by attacking the bishop on social media, calling her a "Radical Left hard line Trump hater" and demanding an apology.
• The News Agents discuss Trump's tendency for "retribution" against his critics, suggesting the bishop might face potential consequences for her plea.

Inside the Trump inauguration

What’s the story?

Not many people are brave enough to give Donald Trump a telling-off to his face, but only one day after taking office the President met his match when the Bishop of Washington called on him to “have mercy” on “scared” LGBT+ children and immigrant families.

Donald Trump, Vice-President J.D Vance and their families were forced to sit and listen to the remarks of Mariann Edgar Budde during the National Prayer Service at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Just hours earlier the President had signed a string of hardline executive orders including ending birthright citizenship for children born in the US to immigrant parents and ordering the US to only recognise two sexes - male and female.

"There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in democratic, republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives,” the bishop said in her plea.

She referred to people who “pick crops,” “clean office buildings” and “wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants” - telling the room that the “vast majority of immigrants are not criminals”.

In her rebuttal, the bishop was “walking into the lion’s mouth,” Emily Maitlis says, adding that Trump and his entire family watched on “staring at her, open-mouthed with disgust”.

“They all stop what they're doing. They all look at her with daggers, and they realise that she's going for him once again.”

The bishop had previously criticised Trump in 2020 over his actions after George Floyd's death, and another time when she said he used sacred symbols to “cloak himself in the mantle of spiritual authority”.

“Which begs the question of why they didn't see this coming,” Emily points out.

The clip of Mariann Edgar Budde’s appeal to Trump has gone viral, and while many are praising her bravery, some are equally concerned for repercussions she could face from a man known to hold a grudge.

Will Donald Trump seek retribution?

Trump wasted no time in criticising the bishop after her speech, posting on Truth Social that she’s a “Radical Left hard line Trump hater.”

“She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.”

He went on; “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!”

Trump wasn’t alone in his condemnation, Georgia representative Mike Collins suggested on social media that Budde should be “added to the deportation list” while Sean Hannity - the Fox News presenter Trump chose for his first network interview post-inauguration - called her a “so-called Bishop” who turned the service into a “woke tirade”.

The whole debacle leaves people wondering if, in her efforts to protect some of the more vulnerable people in America, Budde has cemented her name on Donald Trump’s ‘retribution list’.

The President has never been shy in letting his haters know that he will, one day, come after them. He did as much in his Fox News interview with Sean Hannity, hinting that he might go after Joe Biden himself.

“This guy went around giving everybody pardons,” he said. “And you know, the funny thing, maybe the sad thing, is, he didn't give himself a pardon.”

But when pushed on whether that means the new President will in fact go after the old one, Trump gives no clear answer.

“He leaves this Sword of Damocles hanging over his enemy's heads,” Emily says. “Just enough of a fear to make people think; ‘am I okay?’”

What’s The News Agents’ take?

“Can you imagine what her life is going to be like?” Jon Sopel asks on The News Agents, thinking of Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde.

“We know what a nasty world it is when Trump goes after somebody on social media, his acolytes following behind.”

He thinks the bishop will likely require a 24/7 security detail after her take-down of Trump.

“In Trump's America, free speech has its limitations. You can say whatever you like, but don't criticise Donald Trump, because there are consequences.”

Donald Trump has a “pettiness” and “vindictiveness” towards his enemies, Jon says. This was perhaps most notable in his vengeance against HiIllary Clinton during and after his 2016 presidential campaign.

“He really has got certain people in the cross hairs, and he's going to go after them.”

Mark Landler, White House correspondent for The New York Times during Trump's first term, says when it comes to retribution, Trump has a “list” - which one of his colleagues went through methodically, looking at names such as John Bolton and Joe Biden.

“Anyone who takes a very public position that Trump then condemns, I think, has to assume that they could face some kind of retribution,” he says.

“That's why I think that the things he says about the bishop, and particularly when he got very obviously nasty and personal about it, that's the context in which you have to weigh these things.”

The endless debate, Landler says, is whether to take Trump literally when he says he is going to come after you - and to that, he says, there is “no clear answer”.

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.

---