The service differed from past iterations in that the preacher — Budde — was
announced before Election Day, and the incoming administration generally had less say over the event. The changes were unveiled in October, with Cathedral dean the Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith insisting in a statement that “This will not be a service for a new administration.”
The move may have been an attempt to preempt the kind of pushback the Cathedral faced from liberal-leaning Episcopalians when it agreed to host Trump’s first inaugural prayer service in 2017, including public criticism voiced by the Cathedral’s former dean — who left in 2015 — the Rev. Gary Hall.
“This will have the effect of legitimizing his presidency, which is something I don’t think the Christian community should give him,” Hall
said at the time.