Trump blasts lawmaker for remaining Democrat after receiving pardon

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) at the Capitol in Washington, Sept. 22, 2023. President Donald Trump on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, upbraided Cuellar for not switching parties in his re-election bid after Trump pardoned him and his wife on bribery charges last week, saying Cuellar’s decision displayed a “lack of LOYALTY.” (Kenny Holston/The New York Times)

By ANUSHKA PATIL

President Donald Trump earlier this week upbraided Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, for not switching parties in his reelection bid after Trump pardoned him and his wife on bribery charges last week, saying Cuellar’s decision displayed a “lack of LOYALTY.”

Cuellar was indicted by a federal grand jury last year on charges that he and his wife had accepted roughly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijani oil company and a Mexican bank in exchange for promises that he would use his position in ways that would benefit Azerbaijan and the bank.

As one of the few Democrats in Congress who openly criticized former President Joe Biden for not imposing tougher immigration policies, Cuellar received public support and a pardon from Trump, who wrote on social media this week that the former president had gone “after the Congressman, and even the Congressman’s wonderful wife, Imelda, simply for speaking the TRUTH.”

But by Sunday, Trump appeared to have soured on Cuellar for running for reelection in Texas as a Democrat. In a lengthy social media post, Trump accused Democrats of looking to “destroy” Cuellar and blasted him for not switching parties after receiving the pardon. “Next time, no more Mr. Nice guy!” he added.

In an interview on the Fox News program “Sunday Morning Futures,” Cuellar defended himself as a “conservative Democrat” who was willing to work with the Trump administration and said he had prayed for the president and his family at church that morning.

“I prayed for the presidency because if the president succeeds, the country succeeds,” Cuellar said, adding that “as probably the most bipartisan individual, I don’t vote party. I vote for what’s right for the country.”

Cuellar also echoed Trump’s accusations about his indictment, saying that Biden’s Justice Department had tried to “entrap” him because of his views on immigration and that it had attempted a “sting operation” while investigating what the federal indictment said was a bribery scheme that ran from 2014 through 2021. Though the charges against Cuellar were filed during the Biden administration, career prosecutors under Trump’s Justice Department had decided this summer to move ahead with the bribery case despite pressure from Trump to drop the charges.