Trump calls Democrat he pardoned a ‘loser’ for not switching parties

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.

HOUSE DEM BACK IN THE SPOTLIGHT AS BROTHER FACES UP TO 10 YEARS IN PRISON IF CONVICTED

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.”

DEM REP HENRY CUELLAR REJECTS DSA AGENDA, SAYS SOCIALISTS ARE TRYING TO ‘USE’ DEMOCRATIC PARTY

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.

TRUMP ANNOUNCES PARDON FOR DEMOCRATIC REP HENRY CUELLAR

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)

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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.”