Trump Supporters Back Bukele's Call for Trump to Crack Down on US Judiciary

Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using similar strong-arm tactics used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid online criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to send troops into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

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

In 2021, right after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, 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 those are both specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the government's objectives, the expert said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently