What Did Henry Cuellar Do? Trump Explodes After the Congressman Remains a Democrat

Henry Cuellar has gone from indicted Democrat to pardoned Democrat — and now he’s catching heat from the very president who bailed him out. Days after President Donald Trump pardoned Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife in a major foreign bribery case, Trump took to Truth Social to blast Cuellar for remaining a Democrat.

Cuellar is widely known as one of the most conservative Democrats in the House. Still, that wasn’t enough for Trump. The president quickly turned on the very politician he had just helped, accusing Cuellar of double-crossing him politically.

Donald Trump is upset because Cuellar chose to run for reelection as a Democrat after receiving a presidential pardon instead of switching parties. Trump aired his frustration on Truth Social, calling Cuellar’s decision a “lack of loyalty” and suggesting Texas voters would not approve.

“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,” Trump wrote. Adding, “Such a lack of LOYALTY, something that Texas Voters, and Henry’s daughters, will not like.”

Trump appeared to expect something in return for the pardon, if not a full party switch, then at least a political win for Republicans. In response to being slammed by the president, Cuellar went on Fox News and defended his record and his party choice. “I prayed for the president, I prayed for his family, and I prayed for the presidency, because if the president succeeds, the country succeeds,” Cuellar said during an appearance on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures. “And again, as probably the most bipartisan individual, I don’t vote party. I vote for what’s right for the country.”

In May 2024, the Justice Department indicted Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, on charges that included conspiracy, bribery, honest-services wire fraud, acting as agents of a foreign principal, and money laundering. Prosecutors alleged the couple accepted about $600,000 in bribes from two foreign-linked entities: an oil and gas company wholly owned by the government of Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank based in Mexico City.

Investigators said the money was funneled through sham “consulting” contracts and routed into shell companies controlled by Imelda Cuellar, where she allegedly performed little or no legitimate work. In exchange, prosecutors claimed Henry Cuellar used his position in Congress to push U.S. foreign policy in ways favorable to Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company and to influence legislation while pressuring senior U.S. officials on measures designed to benefit the Mexican bank.

Cuellar is no political lightweight. He served 14 years in the Texas House of Representatives beginning in 1987 and briefly held office as Texas Secretary of State in 2001, making him the last Democrat to hold that statewide post. In 2004, he won a bruising primary against another Democrat, Ciro Rodriguez, and has represented Texas’s 28th Congressional District since 2005. The district stretches from San Antonio’s outskirts down to Laredo and the Rio Grande.