Trump Figures Back Bukele's Call for US President to Target US Judiciary

Donald Trump is not typically known for guidance, particularly from international figures who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian tactics used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media statement recently was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid social media criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information collected 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 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple nations, including by Bukele.

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

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Meghan 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 authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad executive power, she added: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a 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 other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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