The Bishop of Washington has defended her comments after she used her platform to make an emotive plea to President Donald Trump at his inauguration.

Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde gave a 15-minute long sermon on Monday (January 20), as the Republican was sworn-in to power once again – and for just over a minute of that she pleaded with the 78-year-old to ‘have mercy’ on the LGBTQ+ community.

Now, the bishop has insisted she won’t apologize to the president but that she does pray for him.

Speaking during the sermon, Right Rev. Budde said: “Mr President, millions have put their trust in you. And as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God.

“In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and Independent families, some who fear for their lives.

Right Rev. Budde issued a ‘plea’ to the president (CBS News)

“And the people, the people who pick our crops 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, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals.”

Trump hit back at her after the service, branding it ‘not too exciting’ and that he ‘didn’t think it was a good service,’ concluding: “They could do much better.”

He also took to his social media platform Truth Social to slam Budde, even calling for her and the church to apologize to the ‘public’.

Following the backlash, Budde was invited on to NPR (National Public Radio) to discuss the incident.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order to state there are only two recognized genders in the US (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“I don’t hate the president, and I pray for him,” the bishop said. “I don’t feel there’s a need to apologize for a request for mercy.”

“I regret that it was something that has caused the kind of response that it has, in the sense that it actually confirmed the very thing that I was speaking of earlier, which is our tendency to jump to outrage and not speak to one another with respect,” she continued. “But no, I won’t, I won’t apologize for what I said.”

Within just his first 24 hours in the Oval Office, Trump signed off a number of executive orders, including a policy stating there are ‘only two genders’ alongside many orders blocking migrants from being able to enter the US.