President Donald Trump lashed out at Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) on Sunday after learning that the lawmaker – whom he had pardoned this week following bribery and conspiracy charges – still plans to run for re-election as a Democrat, decrying it as “such a lack of loyalty.”
Cuellar, among the most right-wing Democratic lawmakers in Congress, and the only reliably anti-abortion Democrat in the House, was indicted in May of 2024 on charges for bribery, money laundering, acting as a foreign agent and conspiracy.
Prosecutors alleged that he and his wife accepted close to $600,000 from an oil company owned in part by the Eastern European country of Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank in return for him advocating for legislation favorable to both entities. The payments were alleged to be laundered through sham consulting contracts and shell companies.
Trump, however, described the prosecution of Cuellar as political, and alleged it was motivated by his support for “border security.”
“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 wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
“I signed the papers, and said to people in the Oval Office that I just did a very good, perhaps life saving, thing. God was very happy with me that day! THEN IT HAPPENED!!!”
Trump then went on to write how he learned that Cuellar had decided to run for re-election, and apparently to Trump’s surprise, as a Democrat.
“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!”