Trump Figures Endorse Bukele's Plea for Trump to Target US Judiciary

Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, especially from international figures who often seek to flatter and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian methods used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid online attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued 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 troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's high of 630 threats.

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

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Specialists say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been common in recent years in multiple countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

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

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts 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 sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

On the administration’s aims, the expert said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently