President Trump unleashed on Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) after the congressman, freshly pardoned on federal bribery and corruption charges, announced he would seek reelection as a Democrat.

Cuellar, 70, had faced sweeping allegations — including bribery, money laundering, and acting as an unregistered foreign agent — stemming from what prosecutors said was $600,000 in payments funneled through shell companies tied to Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil enterprise and a Mexican bank. The Biden-era Justice Department accused Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, of concealing the funds through “sham consulting contracts” and corporations that performed “little to no legitimate work.”

Trump issued the rare, unconditional pardon last Wednesday, but within hours Cuellar declared he would run again in Texas’ 28th District — one of the most vulnerable Democratic seats in the country.

“Only a short time after signing the Pardon, Congressman Henry Cuellar announced that he will be ‘running’ for Congress again… as a Democrat,” Trump wrote in an extended Truth Social tirade. “Such a lack of LOYALTY… next time, no more Mr. Nice guy!”

The pardon had already baffled Republican strategists. By wiping away a high-profile federal indictment in a district the Cook Political Report rates as a Democratic toss-up, Trump effectively revived a well-known incumbent who has survived every challenge since first taking office in 2004 — including two impeachment votes against Trump himself.

Democratic leaders, by contrast, praised the decision. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) called the indictment “very thin” and said the pardon produced “the right outcome.”

Trump defended his decision by releasing a letter Cuellar’s daughters sent last month, pleading for mercy on behalf of their parents and arguing their father’s criticism of President Biden’s border policies may have contributed to the investigation.

Trump said he never spoke with the congressman or his family but believed the case represented political overreach. “It was all very unfair what they were doing to him and his family… I felt very good about fighting for a family that was tormented by very sick and deranged people,” he wrote.

Still, Cuellar’s immediate return to the Democratic fold — and to the campaign trail — has left Trump fuming and Republicans frustrated. A rare conservative-leaning Democrat in a border district, Cuellar had long been seen as a potential Republican pickup had the indictment proceeded.

Instead, Trump’s own pardon has set the stage for Cuellar — newly cleared, newly energized, and unapologetically running as a Democrat — to fight for yet another term.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)