Trump Figures Endorse Bukele's Plea for US President to Crack Down on US Judges

Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable strong-arm methods employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement last week was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid social media attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Risk Data

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

“The government is looking around at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad executive power, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the debate by repeating their argument that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently