Trump calls Democrat he pardoned a 'loser' for not switching parties
President Donald Trump slammed Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas for not becoming a Republican after receiving a presidential pardon.
Henry Cuellar took the pardon, shook the president’s hand, and then went right back to the Democratic caucus like nothing happened. So Trump called him a “loser. ” Honestly?
Commentary is separate from the original publisher's reporting.
Video President Trump boosts GOP candidate running against pardoned Dem incumbent President Donald Trump lamented that after he pardoned Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife, the congressman did not become a Republican.
President Donald Trump lambasted incumbent Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, calling the congressman "a loser" on Wednesday, while criticizing the lawmaker for remaining a Democrat after receiving a presidential pardon.
Trump pardoned Cuellar and his wife last year as the couple faced charges pertaining to bribery and money laundering.
"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," Trump wrote in a lengthy Truth Social post.
Left: U.S. President Donald Trump waves as he leaves the stage after speaking during a campaign rally at the Freeman Coliseum on Oct. 7, 2026 in San Antonio, Texas; Right: U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, poses for a photo at the Starr County Courthouse Annex Building on Oct. 2, 2026 in Rio Grande City, Texas. (Left: Win McNamee/Getty Images; Right: Gabriel V. Cárdenas/For The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Cuellar, who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2005, is currently seeking re-election.
"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," Trump declared in another part of the post.
"Tano, a legendary Baseball Star, Great Athlete, respected County Judge, and fine person, will hopefully beat Cuellar so that people can show how bad it is when you are recognized and humiliated as being one of the most disloyal political people on Earth!" Trump wrote. "I am very proud of the fact that I didn’t make a deal with Cuellar, which I easily could have, but relied on his character, which turned out to be a faulty one."
Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina, Republican candidate for Texas' 28th Congressional District, poses for a portrait at J. W. Nixon High School on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026 in Laredo, Texas. (Salgu Wissmath/ For The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Trump issued the Truth Social post on Wednesday prior to delivering similar remarks during a rally in San Antonio, Texas.
Tijerina declared in a Wednesday post on X, "Everyone in South Texas knows anything after Hello coming from Henry Cuellar is a lie. President Trump just confirmed that."
Fox News Digital reached out to Cuellar's campaign for comment on Thursday.
Representative Henry Cuellar, a Democrat from Texas, during a House Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies hearing in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, May 21, 2026. (Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In part of a Truth Social post last year, Trump claimed that President Joe Biden had "used the FBI and DOJ to 'take out' a member of his own Party after Highly Respected Congressman Henry Cuellar bravely spoke out against Open Borders, and the Biden Border 'Catastrophe.' Sleepy Joe went after the Congressman, and even the Congressman’s wonderful wife, Imelda, simply for speaking the TRUTH."
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
Henry Cuellar took the pardon, shook the president’s hand, and then went right back to the Democratic caucus like nothing happened. So Trump called him a “loser.” Honestly? That’s not even harsh. It’s just naming the obvious. If you accept a pardon from a president you’ve spent years opposing, the least you can do is show a little gratitude or, better, a little consistency. Cuellar did neither. He wanted the benefit without the relationship.
Trump’ doesn’t do polite fictions. He does bargains, and he expects people to hold up their end. Cuellar treated a presidential pardon like a cashier’s check, then acted surprised the sender expected a thank-you note. A pardon isn’t a party membership card, but it also isn’t a blank check. There’s an old-school rule: you don’t eat a man’s food and then insult his cooking. Cuellar broke that rule, and Trump called it out with his usual vocabulary. That’s not a scandal. That’s just honesty.
Some critics will say Trump shouldn’t tie clemency to politics. Fine. But Cuellar didn’t object to the politics when he needed the escape hatch. He was happy to take Trump’s help in private and distance himself in public. That’s the kind of double-dealing ordinary voters see in Washington every day. Trump just said what those voters were thinking. Nobody should expect a pat on the head for that. But Cuellar’s outrage is a little rich coming from a man who owes his freedom, at least partly, to the president he now pretends to despise. Play both sides, get called out. That’s how it works.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.