A prominent faith leader is condemning President Donald Trump's recently passed budget bill as a “mass betrayal,” accusing the government of turning its back on the nation’s most vulnerable and violating moral principles.
In an op‑ed published Monday in The Hill, Reverend Dwayne Royster – senior pastor of Faith United Church of Christ – strongly criticized the Trump administration’s signature budget legislation. With unflinching language, he described the $1 trillion-plus package not merely as fiscal policy, but as a direct assault on the needy.
“This is not simply politics as usual.… It is a mass betrayal — a sacrifice of the vulnerable on the altar of greed," Royster said.
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Royster lambasted lawmakers, especially those of immigrant descent, for supporting the bill.
“In these halls of power, where few trace their roots to the lands beneath their feet, descendants of immigrants now plot the deportation, detention and disappearance of the most recent generation of arrivals.”
He continued: "The hypocrisy is as thick as the marble lining the floors of the Capitol. To wield the gavel against those who walked paths once trod by your own ancestors is to spit on the legends told around family tables — the stories of hardship, crossing and hope. It is also, bluntly, a sin."
The faith leader argued that this betrayal strikes at the heart of American identity and heritage.
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“This budget does not just ‘cut costs.’ It kills," he added. "Speaking plainly, there will be children who go hungry, men and women who die for want of Medicaid.”
He warned of seniors enduring needless suffering and immigrants vanishing into private detention systems — some even perishing there. “There will be immigrants… who vanish into the gears of a detention machine — some forever, as deaths rise in for‑profit immigrant prisons," he wrote.
Royster urged readers not to view this as routine politics but as a deeply human crisis.
He concluded with a note of defiance and agency. “But the ledgers of history are not yet closed. Our nation’s destiny is not in the hands of politicians alone. The time for mourning must become a time for action.”
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Last month, a Religion News Service report noted that several faith leaders and legislators have rallied against Trump's "Big, Beautiful bill,” arguing it disproportionately favors the wealthy while harming the poor.
Despite these concerns, the bill was signed into law during a ceremony at the White House last Friday.