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

The US President is not typically known for advice, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's recent remarks occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian methods employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement recently was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid online criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

According to information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

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

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the debate by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

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

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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