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Trump Says He Fell for Cuellar Family Pleas
En Route to Pardon in Pitch for Republican
Texas House & Senate Races Rankings
Crystal Ball for 2026 Texas Elections
Capitol Inside
January 6, 2026
President Donald Trump suggested on Tuesday that he'd been played by U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar when he issued a pardon last month that cut the congressional Democrat from Laredo free from bribery and conspiracy charges that he and his wife faced in connection with foreign dealings.
Trump aired the unusual grievances with Cuellar and his family in a rambling Truth Social post that he used to make a pitch for Republican Tano Tijerina in the race for the Congressional District 28 seat that Henry is attempting to defend at the polls this year.
Tijerina, the Webb County judge, faces Eileen Day in a GOP primary pairing in CD 28 - one of five seats that Texas Republican lawmakers targeted for partisan converions on a map they approved in a summer special session last year at Trump's command. Henry is facing a pair of Democratic primary foes in Ricardo Villarreal of Laredo and Andrew Vantine of Mission in a bid for a new term in the district he's represented since 2005.
Tijerina entered the CD 28 race at a time when he thought Cuellar was on the verge of a prison stint for the criminal charges pertaining to private deals involving an energy firm in Azerbaijani and a Mexican banking institution. But Trump, who's supporting him now, threw a major wrench in the GOP challenger's plans when he issued full and unconditional pardons to Cuellar and wife Aida before the filing deadline for 2026 campaigns.
Trump said in the social media commentary today that Cuellar would have gone to prison for 20 years "because he was "stupid" in what he did" but mainly because former President Joe Biden and his "crew of Radical Left Thugs" believed in the use of "Political Weaponization" - a subject on which the nation's current leader said he's an expert. Trump argued that Cuellar was charged with serious crimes because the Biden administration disagreed with his positions on border security.
"He was a weak and incompetent version of me ..." Trump said of Cuellar's views on the border. "Henry's views on these subjects were not strong but they were better than other Democrats."
Trump claimed that he hadn't actually met Cuellar but sympathized with being targeted by "Biden losers" and was taken in by the "magnificence of a letter drawn by his daughters asking me to help "Mom and Dad" when he decided to pardon the U.S. representative from the Texas border district.
"In doing so, I never assumed he would be running for Office again, and certainly not as a Democrat, who essentially destroyed his life even with the Pardon given, but he did, and now, despite doing him by far the greatest favor of his life, 20 years of FREEDOM, I am fighting for his seat in Congress because his views are not nearly as good or strong as Judge Tano Tijerina, who is much more powerful on the Border issue, cutting Taxes, our Military, and just about anything else than is Henry Cuellar,"
the president wrote.
The Cuellar pardon caught the GOP by complete surprise at a time when Republicans thought the CD 28 incumbent couldn't win again as a consequence of the criminal case. Trump's rescue ride on the Democrat's behalf made it possible for Cuellar to run again as the favorite in CD 28.
Trump didn't mention Tijerina again in the post on Cuellar. Tijerina faces complaints from Democrats who've accused him violating the state's resign-to-run law with the use of an exploratory committee as a front for campaigning before he filed to run for the seat.
“The last thing South Texans need in Congress is another shameless politician who refuses to follow the rules," Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee official Madison Andrus said in November. "Voters deserve a representative who is committed to public service –not someone who games the system for their own benefit.”
more to come ...
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