Trump Figures Back El Salvador Leader's Plea for US President to Crack Down on US Judges

Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, especially from international figures who often attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, such as an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian tactics employed by rulers 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 provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid social media attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

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

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats 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 democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

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

Government Goals

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