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

Donald Trump is not typically known for guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's latest remarks occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media statement last week was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

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

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government'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