Donald Trump is fuming that his latest high-profile pardon did not buy him what he clearly thought it would be, a new Republican.
Days after the president wiped away a federal bribery case against Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar and his wife, the longtime congressman filed to run for reelection, proudly keeping the “D” next to his name. Within hours, Trump took to Truth Social and unloaded on the man he had just rescued from potential decades in prison.
“Only a short time after signing the Pardon, Congressman Henry Cuellar announced that he will be ‘running’ for Congress again, in the Great State of Texas (a State where I received the highest number of votes ever recorded!), as a Democrat, continuing to work with the same Radical Left Scum that just weeks before wanted him and his wife to spend the rest of their lives in Prison, And probably still do!” Trump wrote. “Such a lack of LOYALTY, something that Texas Voters, and Henry’s daughters, will not like. Oh’ well, next time, no more Mr. Nice guy!”
Cuellar, a conservative-leaning Democrat who has represented Texas’s 28th District since 2005, was indicted in May 2024 along with his wife, Imelda, on fourteen counts, including conspiracy, bribery, honest services wire fraud, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, and money laundering.
Prosecutors alleged that he and his wife accepted nearly 600,000 dollars in bribes from two foreign linked entities, an Azerbaijani state owned oil and gas company and a Mexican bank, in exchange for using his office to advocate for legislation and policy favorable to both. The money, according to the indictment, was routed through sham consulting contracts into shell companies controlled by Imelda Cuellar, which performed little or no legitimate work.
Trump is angry that Rep. Henry Cuellar didn’t switch parties to Republican after receiving his pardon — which means Trump offered him the pardon in exchange for switching parties. pic.twitter.com/8fwNgI88oe
— Melanie D’Arrigo (@DarrigoMelanie) December 7, 2025
Trump has insisted the case was never about corruption and everything about politics. Announcing the pardon last week, he claimed the Biden administration’s Justice Department “went after the Congressman, and even the Congressman’s wonderful wife, Imelda, simply for speaking the TRUTH” about immigration and border security.
He said he was moved in part by a “beautiful letter” from Cuellar’s daughters, who begged him to “show mercy and compassion” to their parents and complained about a “weaponized” justice system, a theme that mirrors Trump’s own grievances.
“It was all very unfair what they were doing to him and his family, so much so that his daughters wrote me a beautiful letter about their parents,” Trump wrote in a post highlighted by Mediaite. “After reading it I decided, in the interest of justice, and based on the daughter’s loving request, that I would give Henry and Imelda a Full and Complete Pardon.”
Cuellar, for his part, has maintained his innocence, saying the charges were wrong and that he always acted legally, even as two political consultants pleaded guilty in related cases involving money from the Mexican bank. After the pardon, he told reporters, “Nothing has changed, I’m a good old conservative Democrat,” making clear he had no intention of switching parties.
The president’s new tirade makes plain that he saw the pardon not just as an act of mercy, but as a kind of political investment that should have been repaid in party loyalty.
“I never spoke to the Congressman, his wife, or his daughters, but felt very good about fighting for a family that was tormented by very sick and deranged people, They were treated sooo BADLY!” Trump also wrote, before pivoting to his complaint that Cuellar is still “working with the same Radical Left Scum.”
