Trump attacks – Donald Trump lashed out at former Rep. Henry Cuellar ahead of a Texas campaign stop, calling the man he once spared from prison a ‘disloyal’ loser.
The message hit social media just hours before Donald Trump touched down in San Antonio for a rally. Trump. preparing to stump for Tano Tijerina and other Texas Republicans. turned his focus toward an unexpected target: former Congressman Henry Cuellar. a man whose freedom Trump once personally secured through a presidential pardon.
Trump described the pardon as an act performed without any deal. contrasting his own conduct with what he termed a “crooked politician.” He framed the decision as a strategic move born of a belief that Cuellar—whom Trump insists was persecuted by Democrats—would inevitably pivot to the Republican Party. Instead. he branded Cuellar a “disloyal and ungrateful person” and a “LOSER” who belongs in a top-level penitentiary alongside his wife.
Behind this public fallout lies a federal criminal case that once threatened to send the former representative away for years. According to a 2024 Department of Justice news release, the government charged Cuellar with bribery and conspiracy during the Biden administration. Prosecutors alleged he accepted $600. 000 from an Azerbaijan oil company and a Mexican bank. purportedly in exchange for official acts performed while serving in Congress.
For Trump, the grievance is personal and transactional. He characterized his past intervention as the act of saving a life, only to see the beneficiary retreat into the “clutches of the people that tried so hard to destroy him.”
The timing of the outburst serves to sharpen the stakes for the upcoming rally. By positioning the contest as “payback. ” Trump is attempting to mobilize his base behind Tano Tijerina. the GOP challenger running against the man he now publicly disavows. The former president closed his remarks by signaling his full support for the current candidate. calling Tijerina a “STAR” and expressing hope for a decisive win in the Lone Star State.
Trump Henry Cuellar Texas politics Tano Tijerina GOP bribery charges pardon