Trump Figures Back El Salvador Leader's Plea for US President to Target US Judges

Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid social media criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

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

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the threats are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in several nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability 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, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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