Maga Supporters Endorse El Salvador Leader's Plea for Trump to Target US Judges

The US President rarely accepts counsel, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to praise and admire the American leader.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online statement recently was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during online attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in California. The president has been eager to send troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several nations, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation'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 the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say 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 remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

“The administration is looking around at these achievements and failures. 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 openly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats 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 recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

Regarding the government's objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently