Maga Supporters Endorse El Salvador Leader's Call for US President to Crack Down on American Judges

Donald Trump does not usually take advice, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the White House to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm tactics used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online call last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during social media criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

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

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred 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 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the intimidation 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 highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating 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 co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

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 authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the debate by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances 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 eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

“All understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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