Donald Trump is furious that a Democrat he pardoned isn’t returning the favor by switching to the Republican Party.
The president unloaded on Rep. Henry Cuellar Wednesday, calling him “disloyal” and “ungrateful” for remaining a Democrat after he pardoned him.
Trump claimed he made “no deal” when he pardoned Cuellar. But he sure sounds like he expected something in return.
“I did the pardons, and made no deal, where a crooked politician would have,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Then he explained what he apparently expected.
Trump said he thought there was “a good chance” Cuellar would “routinely” go over to the Republican Party because Republicans were the people who had “saved him from years in prison.”
Trump went after Cuellar ahead of his rally in San Antonio, where he was campaigning for Cuellar’s Republican opponent, Tano Tijerina.
“The man running against him, Tano Tijerina, is a STAR and, hopefully, will WIN!” Trump wrote.
Trump called Cuellar a “disloyal and ungrateful person” whose “life has been saved” only to return to “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 wrote.
Cuellar was charged during the Biden administration with bribery, money laundering, conspiracy and acting as an agent of a foreign government.
According to the Justice Department, prosecutors alleged that Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, accepted approximately $600,000 from an Azerbaijan state-owned oil company and a Mexican bank in exchange for Cuellar using his congressional position to advance their interests.
Cuellar denied the allegations and described the prosecution as politically motivated.
Trump pardoned Cuellar and his wife in December 2025.
And Cuellar remained a Democrat.
That apparently didn’t sit well with Trump.
Now, Trump is complaining about Cuellar’s “lack of LOYALTY” as the congressman is running for reelection as a Democrat.
Which brings us back to Trump’s original complaint.
He insists he made no deal when he pardoned Cuellar.
But he also says he expected Cuellar to switch parties because Republicans had “saved him from years in prison.”
And now he’s angry that Cuellar didn’t do it.
Read Trump’s extended rant below:
