Maga Supporters Endorse El Salvador Leader's Plea for Trump to Crack Down on US Judges

The US President does not usually take guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and admire the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online statement last week was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

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

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

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

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several nations, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

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

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad executive power, she added: “They openly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. 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, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating 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 customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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