Maga Figures Back El Salvador Leader's Call for Trump to Crack Down on American Judiciary

Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, especially from international figures who often attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, including an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm methods used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's online statement recently was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during online criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

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

Global Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple countries, such as by Bukele.

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

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

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

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House 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 enact any legislation that would weaken the courts,” she said.

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic 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 warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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