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

The US President is not typically known for guidance, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's latest intervention occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement last week was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during online criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

“The administration is looking around at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any laws that would weaken the courts,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

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

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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