(RNS) — Donald Trump, the president who doesn’t go to church, was expected to have six clergymen offer prayers at his inauguration Monday (Jan. 20), which would have equaled the record he set in 2017 for the most at a presidential inauguration. As it was, only five showed up (as we’ll discuss below), equaling the previous record set by Richard Nixon in 1969.
Reprising his role from eight years ago, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York gave the first invocation, praying not only for the officeholders coming and going but for Trump’s “aspirations.” Did that include the aspiration to kick millions of undocumented immigrants out of the country? Pope Francis would beg to differ.
Franklin Graham, son of Billy and president of the humanitarian nonprofit Samaritan’s Purse, was promoted this year to offering a second invocation — in 2016, he merely gave a benediction. “Father, when Donald Trump’s enemies thought he was down and out,” Graham intoned, “you and you alone saved his life and raised him up with strength and power by your mighty hand.”
That dovetailed nicely with Trump’s own recall of being spared from an assassin’s bullet: “I was saved by God to make America great again.”
Dropped this time from the roster of invocation-givers was Paula White-Cain, the Pentecostal celebrity who orchestrated religious outreach during Trump’s first stint in the White House. Over the past four years, she’s been conspicuous by her absence as his faith-based sidekick.
Also dropped was evangelical Christian pastor Samuel Rodriguez, head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. A year ago, after Trump described immigrants from Latin America, Africa and Asia as “poisoning the blood of our country,” Rodriguez had the nerve to tell Axios, “Any candidate, be [it] Donald Trump or others, who engages in rhetoric that paints the immigrant community with one blanket slate will do so at their peril.”
The benedictions featured a new cast of characters.
Pastor Lorenzo Sewell prays at the inauguration of Donald Trump in the U.S. Capitol rotunda in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2025. (Video screen grab)
In place of Black Detroit pastor Wayne T. Jackson was Black Detroit pastor Lorenzo Sewell. Jackson had earned his place at the 2017 inauguration by interviewing Trump during the campaign on Jackson’s television network. He may have hurt his chance for a return engagement by prophesying on Instagram in July that Kamala Harris would supplant Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket. Sewell got the nod this time around after hosting Trump at a roundtable discussion at his church last June; he took advantage of it by doing a pretty fair imitation of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech on King Day.
Simon Wiesenthal Center founder and president Marvin Hier was the designated rabbi in 2017 but not in 2025. After Trump’s “poisoning the blood” remark, Hier said in a joint statement with Global Social Action’s Abraham Cooper: “Former President Trump has invoked language reminiscent of the Nazi era. It is completely unacceptable to use such language in the body politic of American society. We call on him to withdraw the statement and apologize immediately.” Oops.
Replacing Hier was Rabbi Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University, who may have gotten on Trump’s good side by opposing the establishment of an LGBTQ club on campus. In his benediction, Berman referred to the Israeli hostages held by Hamas who are beginning to be released under the ceasefire agreement that Trump helped bring about: “We are so thankful for the three young women who yesterday returned home and pray that the next four years bring peace to Israel and throughout the Middle East.”
The agreement has been bitterly criticized by right-wing American supporters of Israel as giving Hamas a lifeline. They also criticized Trump for inviting a Michigan imam who supported him during the campaign to give one of the benedictions. The imam, Husham Al-Husainy of Dearborn, did not show up to give it. Whether Trump actually disinvited him remains unclear.
The Rev. Frank Mann prays at the inauguration of Donald Trump in the U.S. Capitol rotunda in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2025. (Video screen grab)
The final benediction-giver was the Rev. Frank Mann, a retired Catholic priest from Brooklyn, who seems to have won Trump’s friendship by weed-whacking the gravesite of his parents and grandparents in Queens, putting up some decorations and sending Trump a photo of what he’d done. In his benediction, he said, “We pray for a spirit of collaboration to flourish in our government and across our nation, fostering an environment where dialogue and heartfelt listening will prevail over division or discord.”
And if you believe that will happen, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.