WASHINGTON — The president has declared war on the nation, the nation as we have known it. — Anonymous

If you ever go to Canterbury Cathedral in England, drops of blood from ages ago are still there on the altar floor. Legend has it that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, was brutally murdered by four knights serving King Henry II, whom Becket crossed.

Henry had medieval knights; Donald Trump has legions of rioters, whom he pardoned and freed.

In a sermon from the Canterbury Pulpit, the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde of the Washington National Cathedral urged the new president to show “mercy” toward immigrants and LGBTQ Americans.

Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, ascended to becoming a voice for the voiceless all over this land. At the prayer service, she had the rare chance to address Trump directly and seized the moment. In a tone gentle and low, she confronted him on a mission of mercy.

“One final plea, Mr. President,” Budde concluded. “I ask you to have mercy upon people in our country who are scared.” She specifically named people who pick crops, clean office buildings, work in meat and poultry plants, and take the night shift for tending the sick in hospitals.

But Trump’s threatened roundups and deportations of undocumented immigrants have already begun in the first week in office. So has an assault on the federal government workforce. Transgender members of the military are now banned, just like that.

Budde also prayed for compassion for gay, lesbian and transgender youth, at a time of heightened despair, when suicide lines are jammed. The heroine brought a ray of light through the neo-Gothic stained-glass windows.

Trump sat his huge frame in the front row, not even 15 feet away from Budde, and glared at her. He was on the hook, forced to listen to a woman’s words in a sacred space.

In politics, he’s a master at belittling and slandering women, as he did to presidential opponents Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris. It’s practically what he does for a living.

When it came to Budde’s appeal, which made waves across the city and country, Trump demanded an apology.

To be challenged in public, especially by a woman, is a cardinal sin.

So mercy did not win the day.

Yet Trump did grant clemency to 1,500 rioters in the Jan. 6 mob who injured 140 police officers and stormed the Capitol, including leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. These extremist groups essentially acted as personal militias for Trump.

I was a witness to the 2021 attack, amid the breaking glass, tear gas and gunshots in the Capitol. Clearly that sacred space was more fragile than we knew.

Once we thought an American president would never incite political violence against his own people, would he? Well, now we know the answer to that question. Nothing should surprise us about Trump anymore.

The Canterbury Pulpit is carved from stone from Canterbury Cathedral. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached his last Sunday sermon in the grand Washington Cathedral pulpit days before he was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. The Nobel Peace Prize winner was 39.

Henry’s famous hint to his knights during a church-state feud: “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?” That line was Becket’s death warrant.

I’m not saying Trump’s rage at Budde will come to blood, though she may be in danger. I am saying that Trump had no problem with his nemesis, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), being hunted in the Capitol by a murderous mob. They never found her, but it was a close call.

Two other distinguished women were treated to Trump’s tirades lately: Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.

Trump scolded Bass publicly about the devastating fires in her city and the recovery effort.

On a lengthy call with Frederiksen, over 45 minutes, he badgered her to have Denmark cede the arctic real estate to the United States.

What kind of American president treats allies like that? On edge, European leaders are asking that question right now.

Becket’s bloodshed tells a tale of an unchecked leader bursting his bounds.

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The author may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit creators.com.