Trump Figures Endorse El Salvador Leader's Call for Trump to Target American Judges

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

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm tactics used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online statement recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid social media criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

“The government is looking around at these successes and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any laws that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe 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' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats 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 judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“All understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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