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

The US President rarely accepts counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm tactics used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media statement recently was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid social media attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the threats are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

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

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the government's aims, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently