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

The US President is not typically known for guidance, particularly from international figures who often attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, including an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm tactics used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement last week was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid social media attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year 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 surpassed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority 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. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“All understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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