The MAGA community is sounding the alarm on President Donald Trump’s use of his pardoning power, with some warning that a continuation of specific pardons and commutations could put the president at odds with his supporters.
Trump has issued a slew of pardons in recent weeks, most recently liberating Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), who was charged with 12 counts of bribery, conspiracy, money laundering, and acting as an agent for a foreign government. The Texas Democrat was accused of accepting $600,000 from an Azerbaijan oil company and a Mexican bank.
On Truth Social, Trump declared that Cuellar was innocent and was subjected to the weaponization of the Justice Department under the Biden administration.
Cuellar thanked the president for the pardon on Xm and praised his “tremendous leadership.”
“This pardon gives us a clean slate. The noise is gone. The work remains. And I intend to meet it head on. Thank you Mr. President, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America,” Cuellar said.
Several MAGA conservatives expressed their confusion over Trump’s pardon, noting that Cuellar was a fierce critic of the president in his first term.
“I’m baffled,” one person said, while sharing an image of a post on Jan. 13, 2021, from Cuellar, who voted to impeach Trump.
Another user, called MAGA Purist, called the president’s move a “mistake”: “He’s a crook. Big mistake.”
Trump also faced backlash for his pardon of David Gentile, an American investor who served 12 days in prison out of a seven-year sentence for partaking in a $1.6 billion scheme that defrauded a plethora of investors, as reported by the Daily Mail.
Conservative commentator Mike Cernovich, who has stood side by side with Trump and has often praised him on social media, was not too fond of the president’s pardon.
“Completely disgusting,” Cernovich said.
“If there’s anyone close to Trump who actually gives a shit, they need to do an intervention on the pardons. Totally corrupt scammers are getting cases dismissed, sentences commuted, it’s totally out of control,” Cernovich argued.
Cernovich’s posts were met largely with agreement from Trump supporters, some of whom claimed that the president’s move constituted a betrayal of his voters.
“He completely betrayed his base. Israeli blackmail seems most obvious,” Phaltron The Mastermind wrote.
“Trump is out of control,” Greg Hartman said.
On Monday, the White House was asked to address the president’s pardon of Gentile.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that the convicted fraudster was prosecuted under the Biden administration’s weaponized DOJ.
“This is another example of a weaponization of justice from the previous administration,” Leavitt said.
The latest pardons have opened a new rift inside the MAGA movement, raising questions about whether Trump’s decisions will alienate segments of his own base as he prepares for the 2026 midterms.
