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Donald Trump is not often forced to listen to those who disagree with him, and when the newly inaugurated president is confronted with his critics, he tends to unravel. The Republican’s debate meltdowns, for example, have become the stuff of legend......

Hours later, shortly after midnight, the president abandoned subtlety and published a far more forceful rebuke to his social media platform. It read in its entirety:

The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater. She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart. She failed to mention the large number of illegal migrants that came into our Country and killed people. Many were deposited from jails and mental institutions. It is a giant crime wave that is taking place in the USA. Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was a very boring and uninspiring one. She is not very good at her job! She and her church owe the public an apology!

There’s no point in fact-checking every error of fact and judgment in the president’s online harangue. The Rev. Edgar Budde is not a “so-called” bishop; there is no “giant crime wave”; Trump’s line about “mental institutions” has long been ridiculous, etc.....

Take a moment to imagine what would happen if a progressive House Democrat called for an American religious leader to be kicked out of the country for delivering a sermon he or she disagreed with.

What’s more, whether Republicans appreciate this or not, the more they whined about the bishop’s sermon, the more likely it became that the public would hear what Budde had to say. The Streisand Effect is, after all, a real phenomenon.

Let’s also not forget that for many congressional Republicans, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, there was a Biden-era “scandal” about officials targeting and harassing religious leaders. It was nonsense, of course, though it’s hard not to notice that these same GOP leaders have far less to say about their allies targeting Budde......

The post-inaugural national prayer service, however, shed light on the limits of the president’s approach: Religion must be celebrated, protected, respected and venerated, Trump apparently thinks — just so long as the faith community is telling him what he wants to hear.