Trump Supporters Back El Salvador Leader's Plea for US President to Target US Judges

Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, including an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian tactics used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's online call last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

“The government is observing at these successes and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“All understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently