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

Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, especially from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and compliment 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 impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian methods used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during social media attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists state 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 alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several nations, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

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 observing 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 instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad executive power, she added: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. 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, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“All knows 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 these are 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 administration’s objectives, the expert said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently