Maga Figures Endorse Bukele's Call for Trump to Target US Judges

Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, including an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's recent remarks occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made during online criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen overseas.

“The administration is observing at these achievements and setbacks. 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 the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the debate by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

“All knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s aims, the expert said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently