‘Sorry Don, you got played’: Donald Trump melts down after Henry Cuellar announces Democratic campaign despite receiving his pardon
Donald Trump pardoned Henry Cuellar and his wife on Dec. 3, claiming their prosecution was a political hit job by Biden. But the real political play was Trump’s. He thought freeing Cuellar would buy loyalty and maybe even a party switch. Instead, Cuellar walked out of the courthouse and right back to the Democrats.
After ranting about how Biden weaponized the DoJ in the Dec. 3 post, Trump signed off his message to Cuellar with, “Your nightmare is finally over!” His post read like a note of kindness, shocking everyone that he’d suddenly grown a heart for a Democrat. But Trump being Trump, people didn’t have to wonder too long why he was being kind.
As it turns out, Trump wasn’t handing out mercy; he was expecting a recruitment. He clearly believed Cuellar would switch parties and join the MAGA cult in exchange for the pardon. But he knew the rules of this political chess better and finessed Trump. Four days after his clemency announcement, he broke down on Truth Social again.
In his new rant, Trump branded his clemency as a “life-saving thing.” He even boasted how “God was very happy” with him as if divine approval were part of the pardon. And of course, he couldn’t finish a post without demonizing Biden and his administration. Calling them “vicious,” he cast himself as the heroic liberator who “saved” Cuellar.
But you would think a President knows that pardons aren’t supposed to be barter. Yet, when Cuellar announced he would be running for Congress again as a Democrat, Trump lost it.
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 – And probably still do!
Trump thrashed Cuellar for showing “a lack of LOYALTY,” as Cuellar owed that to him in exchange for the pardon. He then dragged Texas voters and even Cuellar’s daughters into the tantrum, warning they “will not like” his decision to stay a Democrat. And while he tried to frame it as backstabbing, he accidentally confessed to corruption.
The President had used his pardon power not for justice, but to try to buy Republicans another House seat. But Cuellar beat Trump at his own game cleanly and publicly. On Fox News, he again announced, “I’m an American, I’m a Texan, and I’m a Democrat in that order.” Responding to Trump’s post, Cuellar simply said he had him in his prayers in Church on Sunday.
“I am a conservative Democrat, but I will work with the president. I prayed for the president. I prayed for his family, and I prayed for the presidency because if the president succeeds, the country succeeds.” (via BBC)
But users on X were not as gentle with Trump. If anything, they caught the subtext that Trump didn’t intend to expose. One person wrote:
Trump openly confessed that he used the pardon power as a political bribe; and became furious when the recipient [Henry Cuellar] didn’t pay him back with loyalty. That is impeachable. It is corrupt. And that is exactly why the Constitution includes impeachment in the first place.
And they’re not wrong. In his tantrum, Trump accidentally revealed that his presidential pardon wasn’t about justice, innocence, or fairness. He didn’t free Cuellar because he believed in him. He freed Cuellar because he expected something in return. And when he didn’t get it, the meltdown wrote the entire confession of corruption for him.
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