Trump Figures Back Bukele's Plea for US President to Crack Down on US Judges

Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, especially from international figures who often attempt to praise and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's latest intervention occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement recently was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during social media criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to send troops into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

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

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless 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 digital networks from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

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

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the debate by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders 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 Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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