Trump Figures Back Bukele's Plea for Trump to Crack Down on US Judges

The US President is not typically known for advice, especially from international figures who often seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, including an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call recently was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during online attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur 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 resuming office recently, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase 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 GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts 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 executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

“The government is looking around at these successes and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any legislation that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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