Milwaukee Archbishop Apologizes Over Trump Prayer Video Released by White House

Milwaukee Archbishop Jeffrey Grob apologized on Sunday, October 25, 2026, for taking part in an Oval Office prayer with President Donald Trump after the White House released video and photographs of the encounter. Grob said the October 22 meeting was not an endorsement of Trump, his policies or the Republican Party.

In a statement published by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Grob said the 12 participating bishops had been told they were attending a private discussion and might have an opportunity to pray privately with the president. He said the administration publicized the gathering without the participants’ consent, less than two weeks before the November 3 midterm elections.

What Grob said happened

Grob wrote that the Heritage Foundation arranged the meeting, the second of two such gatherings, and invited him in mid-September. He said the bishops expected to discuss immigration enforcement, visas for religious workers and human dignity with Catholic members of the administration. Grob said he attended because he believed speaking directly with officials could improve people’s lives.

According to Grob, the bishops first spent about 90 minutes with White House domestic-policy staff and advisers. They were then taken to the Oval Office, where Trump greeted them and gave them commemorative tokens. Grob said the group was directed to stand behind the president and pray. Photographs were taken, while a video was recorded without the bishops’ knowledge, he said.

Grob said neither the video nor the photographs were approved by the bishops for public distribution. After White House communications adviser Margo Martin and Trump’s campaign account posted video of the prayer, Grob said he received messages from people concerned that he had inadvertently joined a political event. He also heard from people who said they or their relatives had been harmed by Trump administration policies.

Apology and political context

Grob characterized the release as the manipulation of a sacred moment into a political photo opportunity. He said the bishops went to advocate for the common good and pray with a president, not to provide campaign imagery. He added that he had reservations before attending, wished he had followed them and apologized for any damage caused by his participation.

The National Catholic Reporter and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel separately reported Grob’s apology. NCR said another participant, Denver Archbishop James Golka, had also stressed that the meeting was not intended as a political endorsement. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops previously said it did not organize the gathering and was not affiliated with it.

White House response

Before Grob issued his apology, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers defended Trump’s record with Catholic Americans in a statement to NCR. Trump told reporters on October 23 that the bishops had prayed and called it a “great meeting.” Those comments did not address Grob’s later assertion that the participants had not consented to public distribution of the images. The reports available Sunday did not include a new White House response to that allegation.

Grob’s account establishes what he says the bishops expected and authorized; it does not establish who decided to record or publish the footage. His apology nevertheless created a new dispute over the administration’s use of the meeting as election-season political imagery and over the line between pastoral engagement and partisan endorsement.

Sources and image credit

• Archdiocese of Milwaukee — Archbishop Jeffrey Grob’s public apology
• National Catholic Reporter — Grob apologizes and describes the White House meeting
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — Grob says the video was released without the bishops’ consent
• Image: Archbishop Jeffrey Grob at his 2025 installation Mass, via Wikimedia Commons
• Original Wikimedia image file
• Image license: CC0 1.0 public-domain dedication