Trump regrets pardoning Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar after he runs for re-election
Donald Trump has slammed a Texas politician for ‘lack of loyalty’ after his presidential pardon was rewarded with the representative’s new run for office - as a Democrat.
President Donald Trump has expressed angry regret over his eyebrow-raising pardon of Texas politician Henry Cuellar after he quickly confirmed his reelection plans as a Democrat.
Cuellar ,70, who sits in one of the House Democrats’ most competitive seats faced federal bribery, money laundering, and foreign-agent charges for allegedly taking US$600,000 from Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company and a Mexican bank.
“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,” Mr Trump raged in a lengthy Truth Social post.
“Such a lack of LOYALTY, something that Texas Voters, and Henry’s daughters, will not like. Oh’ well, next time, no more Mr. Nice guy!”
President Trump’s pardon of Mr Cuellar had perplexed many Republicans.
Mr Cuellar, who voted to impeach Mr Trump twice during his first term, was accused of taking bribes between 2014 and 2021 via “sham consulting contracts” and “a series of front companies and middlemen.”
Those firms were owned by Mr Cuellar’s wife, Imelda, who “performed little to no legitimate work,” the Justice Department alleged.
The South Texas Democrat confirmed his reelection plans to reporters shortly after President Trump announced the pardon.
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TRUMP HAILS CONTROVERSIAL HEALTH PLAN
An advisory panel appointed by President Donald Trump’s vaccine-skeptic health secretary has voted to stop recommending that all newborns in the United States receive a hepatitis B vaccine.
The move to end the decades-old recommendation is the panel’s latest contentious vaccine policy since its overhaul by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earlier this year.
US health authorities previously recommended that all babies, not just those born to mothers believed to have hepatitis B, receive the first of three vaccine doses just after birth.
The approach aimed, in part, to prevent transfers from mothers who unknowingly had hepatitis B or had falsely tested negative, and had virtually eradicated infections of the potentially deadly liver disease among young people in the country.
After delaying the vote by a day, the panel passed its new recommendation for “individual-based decision-making,” in consultation with a health care provider, when children are born to mothers testing negatively for the disease.
The decision to vaccinate at birth should “consider vaccine benefits, vaccine risks, and infection risks.”
Mr Trump hailed the move as “a very good decision” on his Truth Social platform.
But the new recommendation was immediately condemned by several medical groups who noted widespread shortcomings in US maternal health screening as well as the possibility of infections from others.
“This irresponsible and purposely misleading guidance will lead to more hepatitis B infections in infants and children,” American Academy of Pediatrics President Susan J. Kressly said in a statement.
TRUMP’S NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY TARGETS EUROPE
President Donald Trump has laid out a radical realignment of US foreign policy, shifting the superpower’s focus from global to regional, criticising Europe as facing “civilisational erasure” and putting a priority on eliminating mass migration.
The national security strategy elevates Latin America to the top of the US agenda in a sharp reorientation from longstanding US calls to focus on Asia to face a rising China.
“In everything we do, we are putting America First,” Mr Trump said in a preamble to the long-awaited paper.
Breaking with decades of attempts to be the sole superpower, the strategy said that the “United States rejects the ill-fated concept of global domination for itself.”
It said that the United States would also prevent other powers, namely China, from dominating but added: “This does not mean wasting blood and treasure to curtail the influence of all the world’s great and middle powers.” The strategy called for a “readjustment of our global military presence to address urgent threats in our Hemisphere,” starting with migration.
“The era of mass migration must end,” the strategy paper said. The strategy made clear that the United States under Mr Trump would aggressively pursue similar objectives in Europe, in line with far-right parties’ agendas.
In extraordinary language for addressing close allies, the strategy said the administration would be “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations.” Germany quickly hit back, saying that it does not need “outside advice.” Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks said the document “discards decades of values-based US leadership in favour of a craven, unprincipled world view.”
The strategy pointed to Europe’s slide in share of the global economy — which is the result largely of the rise of China and other emerging powers — and said the “decline is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilisational erasure.
“Should present trends continue, the continent will be unrecognisable in 20 years or less.”
TRUMP AWARDED FIFA’S INAUGURAL PEACE PRIZE
Donald Trump has been awarded FIFA’s inaugural peace prize during the highly-anticipated ceremony to announce the 2026 World Cup draw in Washington DC.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino presented Mr Trump with the peace prize that included a gold trophy and “a beautiful medal for you that you can wear everywhere you want to go”.
Infantino said the US President was honoured for his “exceptional and extraordinary actions to promote peace”.
Mr Trump said the award was one of the greatest honours of his life and agreed “the world is a safer place now” and that his efforts had saved “millions and millions of lives”.
“I want to thank my family and the great First Lady Melania,” he said.
The 2026 World Cup will be jointly hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico and Mr Trump said he expected it to be a great success.
“I think you’re going to have an event the likes the world has never seen,” he said.
The award came as the Socceroos were sorted into Group D alongside the United States, Paraguay and the yet-to-be-determined winner of an upcoming play off between Turkey, Slovakia, Kosovo and Romania.
The full schedule is yet to be announced, but Australia will play the United States at Seattle’s Lumen Field on June 19.
The World Cup final will be held at New Jersey’s Met Life Stadium on July 19.
TRUMP SHARES WARM MOMENT WITH MELANIA
Earlier, Mr Trump shared a warm moment with his wife at the annual national Christmas tree lighting ceremony, telling First Lady Melania “good job honey” as she did the honours lighting up the tree in Washington DC.
Thousands of people braved the chilly evening on the Ellipse to see the President and First Lady take part in the annual tradition.
“I want to pay my deepest respect and love to all of our great citizens, like 350 million people,” Mr Trump said at the event.
“We love them all, whether you like them or not. We love them all. We want to take care of everybody. We have to take care of everybody in our country.”
The President spoke about his administration’s successes during the year, and said he still hoped to broker and end to the Russia-Ukraine war.
“With the birth of Jesus, human history turned from night to day,” he said.
“His word and his example call us to love one another, to serve one another and to honour the sacred truth that every child is specially made in the image of God.”
He also paid tribute to the two National Guard members shot in Washington last month.
“They paid, in one case, the ultimate and the other, Andrew (Wolfe), is getting better,” he said.
“Sarah (Beckstrom), unfortunately, is watching from a high, watching from heaven. Parents are so incredible, and Andrew is hopefully getting better.
The First Lady lit the tree after her husband led the crowd in a countdown, then warmly said “good job honey” as the tree was lit.
TRUMP FORCES KILLED ‘SHIPWRECKED’ SAILORS
The US House Intelligence Committee has heard testimony from the admiral who ordered a second strike to kill surviving narco-terrorists on a Venezuelan drug boat and watched the harrowing footage of the mission.
There has been an outcry in recent days since it emerged on September 2, on the first occasion America bombed a Venezuelan vessel, two people survived only to be taken out by a second missile.
The top Democrat on the intelligence committee, Representative Jim Himes, told reporters the footage was harrowing and believed it should be made public.
“What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service,” Congressman Himes said.
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) September 2, 2025
“You have two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, were killed by the United States.
“Any American who sees the video that I saw, will see the United States military attacking shipwrecked sailors – bad guys, bad guys, but attacking shipwrecked sailors.
“Now there’s a whole set of contextual items that the admiral explained. Yes, they were carrying drugs. They were not in the position to continue their mission in any way.”
However chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Republican Tom Cotton, had a very different take after attending the same hearing.
“The first strike, the second strike and the third and the fourth strike on September 2nd were entirely lawful and needful, and they were exactly what we’d expect our military commanders to do,” Senator Cotton said.
“I saw two survivors trying to flip a boat, loaded with drugs bound for the United States, back over so they could stay in the fight.”
“And just like you would blow up a boat off of the Somali coast or the Yemeni coast, and you’d come back and strike it again if it still had terrorists and it still had explosives or missiles, Admiral Bradley and Secretary Hegseth did exactly what we’d expect them to do.”
VENEZUELAN LEADER’S SECRET CALL TO TRUMP REVEALED
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro wanted Donald Trump to help him keep A$300 million from his funds in order to flee the country.
Sources told the UK’s Telegraph Maduro also asked for amnesty for up to 100 officials and arrangements made for his safe passage to a new country in a 15 minute phone call made late last month.
The sources said while the Venezuelan leader wanted to stay in a Western country, Mr Trump suggested he consider relocating to China or Russia.
‘DADDY’S HOME’: WHITE HOUSE RELEASES CHRISTMAS CARTOON
Washington DC is getting into the festive spirit with the White House releasing Christmas themed cartoon starring President Trump.
Mr Trump is depicted wearing a Santa hat amid a snowy scene with the words “Daddy’s Home” emblazoned at the top.
The phrase is a reference to when NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte affectionately dubbed Mr Trump “daddy” during their June summit to the delight of the US leader.
HEGSETH ‘RISKED COMPROMISE OF SENSITIVE INFO’
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of commercial messaging app Signal to discuss strikes on Yemen risked compromising sensitive information and could have put troops at risk, the Pentagon’s independent watchdog said.
“The secretary sent nonpublic DoD information identifying the quantity and strike times of manned US aircraft over hostile territory over an unapproved, unsecure network approximately two to four hours before the execution of those strikes,” the inspector general’s office said in a report, using an abbreviation for the Department of Defence.
“Using a personal cell phone to conduct official business and send nonpublic DoD information through Signal risks potential compromise of sensitive DoD information,” it said.
The report noted that Mr Hegseth is an “original classification authority” and can decide when materials no longer require protection, but said his actions “created a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed US mission objectives and potential harm to US pilots.”
The probe was sparked by the Atlantic magazine’s revelation in March that its editor-in-chief was inadvertently included in a Signal chat in which officials including Mr Hegseth and then-national security adviser Mike Waltz discussed impending strikes on Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels.
No classified information.
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) December 3, 2025
Total exoneration.
Case closed.
Houthis bombed into submission.
Thank you for your attention to this IG report. https://t.co/eQPO5iPIRc
The chat included messages in which Mr Hegseth revealed the timing of strikes hours before they happened and information on aircraft and missiles involved.
“If this information had fallen into the hands of US adversaries, Huthi forces might have been able to counter US forces or reposition personnel and assets to avoid planned US strikes,” the watchdog report said.
US media then reported in April that Hegseth had created a second Signal chat in which the March Yemen strikes were discussed with people including his wife and brother, but the Pentagon chief likewise weathered that storm and remained in office.
US PEACE INSTITUTE NAMED AFTER TRUMP AMID RWANDA-CONGO TRUCE
The US Institute of Peace headquarters has been officially renamed after Donald Trump who helped facilitate a peace deal between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mr Trump and the leaders of the African nations signed the deal in Washington even as fighting continued on the ground.
“I think it’s going to be a great miracle,” Mr Trump told reporters after the signing with Paul Kagame, the longtime president of Rwanda, and Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi.
The US President thanked Secretary of State Marco Rubio for the honour of renaming the building.
“President Trump will be remembered by history as the President of Peace. It’s time our State Department display that,” Mr Rubio posted to X along with a photo illustrating the signage had already been changed over.
– with AFP
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