Trump Supporters Endorse Bukele's Plea for US President to Target American Judges

The US President does not usually take advice, especially from international figures who often attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid online criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of 630 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 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss 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 replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

“The administration is looking around at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments 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 written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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