Trump Rages at ‘Disloyal’ Democrat for Not Switching Parties After He Pardoned Him

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

President Donald Trump erupted at Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) on Wednesday evening, railing against the lawmaker for not becoming a Republican after Trump pardoned him last year.

Shortly before speaking at a rally in San Antonio, where he was heckled numerous times, Trump fired off a lengthy screed against Cuellar. In 2024, the Biden Department of Justice indicted the congressman on charges of bribery, money laundering, and unlawful foreign influence. The DOJ alleged Cuellar had accepted bribes from a gas company controlled by the government of Azerbaijan and a bank in Mexico City.

In December, Trump pardoned Cuellar, a moderate Democrat, baselessly alleging that the lawmaker had been targeted for being critical of the Biden administration.

Before arriving at Wednesday’s rally, the president expressed anger at Cuellar for not switching parties, which would be a potentially consequential move in the House, where Republicans hold a slim majority.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump called Cuellar a “LOSER” who should have become a Republican and reiterated his support for Cuellar’s GOP opponent, Tano Tijerina. The president wrote in part:

To the people of Texas, I am headed your way, and one of the people that I am going to pay respect to today is Tano Tijerina. Out of love and passion, he is running against a Dumocrat, Henry Cuellar, who, along with his wife, I pardoned, at the request of his daughters, because they said, “Please don’t let them take our parents away!” They would have gone to jail on federal fraud and conspiracy charges, for over 20 years and, in fact, Henry Cuellar’s brother, a Sheriff, a short time later, was indicted on the same charges. In any event, I did the pardons, and made no deal, where a crooked politician would have, but I thought there would be a good chance that Cuellar, who was persecuted by Democrats because they didn’t like him, would have routinely gone over to the Republican Party — The people that saved him from years in prison. Shockingly, Cuellar announced, only a few days later, that he is going to remain a Dumocrat. Many considered this to be a tremendous act of disloyalty, and certainly, showed him to be an extremely ungrateful person. His wife, as I heard, wanted him to turn to the man and the Party that helped him, but he wouldn’t do it so, because they’re vicious, the Dumocrats will have a chance to go after him again. In any event, the man running against him, Tano Tijerina, is a STAR and, hopefully, will WIN! We call that payback for a disloyal and ungrateful person, a person whose life has been saved only to go back into the clutches of the people that tried so hard to destroy him. Henry Cuellar is a LOSER who, right now, should be serving a longterm jail sentence with his wife in a top level penitentiary.

Later on at the rally, Trump stumped for Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate. The president endorsed the scandal-ridden Paxton in the Republican primary against Sen. John Cornyn. Polls show Paxton trailing his Democratic opponent, state Rep. James Talarico. No Democrat has won statewide office in Texas since 1994.

The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
The single summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting from both sides of the aisle. Subscribe now!