Maga Supporters Back El Salvador Leader's Call for Trump to Crack Down on US Judiciary

Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm tactics used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt deportation flights sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid online criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

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

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice 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 dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

“All understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On the government'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