In January 2025, Budde delivered the homily at the interfaith prayer service following Donald Trump's second presidential inauguration.

[4][5][6] She completed her undergraduate work at the University of Rochester[4] in 1982,[7] earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in history magna cum laude.

[21] Budde oversaw the 2017 removal of the Washington National Cathedral's stained-glass panes honoring Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.

[25][26] In June 2020, amid the George Floyd protests in Washington, DC, Budde criticized the use of police and National Guard to forcibly clear protestors from Lafayette Square ahead of President Donald Trump's pose for a photo op in front of St. John's Church, enabling its use "as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus.

In her prayer, Budde asked God for the "grace to do something big for something good", quoting William Sloane Coffin.

When convention organizers suggested she deliver the benediction from in front of St. John's Church, she declined, saying the idea was “wildly inappropriate.”[30] In September 2024, Budde was one of about 200 Christian leaders and scholars to sign an open letter calling for the preservation of pluralist democracy, and opposition to authoritarian rule, citing it as an imperative of the Christian faith.

[31] Budde told the Religion News Service that she believed that addressing wealth disparities, preserving religious pluralism, and serving as peacemakers are part of Christian responsibility.

[4][32] Also in attendance were the new vice president, JD Vance; House speaker Mike Johnson; and Pete Hegseth, Trump's nominee for defense secretary.

[32][33][34][35][36] In the sermon, Budde addressed Trump, who was sitting in the first pew, urging him to show mercy and compassion to vulnerable people,[4][34] saying, "Millions have put their trust in you.

[41][42] According to Baptist News Global, Megan Basham and other far-right religious figures used the incident to press their views against the ordination of women as pastors.

[43] Budde's remarks were welcomed by civil rights advocate (and youngest daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr.) Bernice King, Pope Francis's biographer Austen Ivereigh[44] and other public figures, including the Episcopal Church's senior bishop, Sean Rowe, who said that "a plea for mercy, a recognition of the stranger in our midst, is core to the faith ... but it's not bound to political ideology".

"[34] Budde said that unity requires mercy, humility, and the upholding of human dignity; she warned against America's "culture of contempt" as well as the harms of polarizing narratives.