President Trump called Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar a “loser,” backed his Republican challenger, and said the Texas incumbent repaid a presidential pardon with disloyalty instead of joining the GOP.
President Donald Trump went after Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, in a Truth Social post and again at a San Antonio rally, accusing the longtime House member of ingratitude after a pardon and urging voters to replace him. Fox News Digital reported the remarks as Trump boosted Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina, the Republican running in Texas’ 28th Congressional District.
Cuellar has served in the U.S. House since 2005 and is seeking re-election. Trump pardoned Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, last year as the couple faced charges pertaining to bribery and money laundering. Trump said he expected the congressman might cross over to the Republican Party after that clemency. Cuellar remained a Democrat.
That gap between the pardon and Cuellar’s party loyalty sat at the center of Trump’s attack. Trump framed the endorsement of Tijerina as payback and said he never cut a deal for the clemency.
In the Truth Social post, Trump described his thinking at the time of the pardons and what he believed should have followed.
"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. He cast Republicans as the side that kept Cuellar out of a long prison term and said the congressman’s decision to stay with Democrats left him on the wrong side of that rescue.
Trump pressed the same point harder in the next stretch of the post, naming Tijerina and labeling Cuellar in blunt terms.
"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 stated. He added that he was proud he had not bargained for the pardon and had instead relied on Cuellar’s character, “which turned out to be a faulty one.”
Trump also praised Tijerina’s background in the same message, calling him a legendary baseball star, great athlete, respected county judge, and fine person who should beat Cuellar so voters can answer what Trump called extreme political disloyalty. Trump delivered similar remarks at the San Antonio rally the same day.
Tijerina answered quickly on X. The Webb County judge and GOP candidate tied Trump’s post to a local verdict on Cuellar’s word.
"Everyone in South Texas knows anything after Hello coming from Henry Cuellar is a lie. President Trump just confirmed that."
Tijerina wrote. The exchange put a clear primary contest frame on a South Texas seat held for two decades by a Democrat who had just received clemency from a Republican president.
Fox News Digital reached out to Cuellar’s campaign for comment the following day. No response appeared in the reporting.
The clemency itself is not in dispute in the account. Trump pardoned Cuellar and Imelda last year while they faced charges pertaining to bribery and money laundering. Trump has said he made no deal. In a separate Truth Social post from last year, Trump had defended Cuellar in different terms, claiming then-President Joe Biden used the FBI and DOJ to target the congressman and his wife after Cuellar spoke out against open borders and what Trump called the Biden border catastrophe.
That earlier post portrayed Cuellar as a Democrat punished by his own party for border criticism. The newer post treats the same man as ungrateful for staying with Democrats after the pardon. The sequence is straightforward: charges, pardon, no party switch, then a public Republican endorsement of Cuellar’s challenger and a direct attack on the incumbent’s loyalty.
Cuellar’s House tenure dates to 2005. Tijerina is running as the Republican in the 28th District. Trump’s message paired personal praise for the challenger with a claim that voters should punish the incumbent for returning to the party Trump said had tried to destroy him.
Trump’s argument rests on a simple political exchange he says never materialized. He granted pardons without a deal, believed Cuellar might join Republicans, watched Cuellar stay put, and then backed the GOP candidate running against him. Cuellar has not publicly answered that charge in the available reporting. Tijerina has treated Trump’s words as confirmation of what he already tells South Texas voters.
The episode leaves a clean contrast for the district. One side holds a multi-term Democratic incumbent who took a presidential pardon and kept his party label. The other side holds a county judge with Trump’s endorsement and an open invitation for voters to treat the race as a referendum on gratitude and party loyalty.
Voters in South Texas will decide whether a pardon without a party switch is politics as usual, or the kind of disloyalty Trump says deserves a loss.
