Trump Figures Back Bukele's Call for Trump to Crack Down on American Judges

Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, particularly from international figures who often seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm tactics used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's online statement recently was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during social media attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting 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 court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate 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 global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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