Trump Supporters Endorse El Salvador Leader's Call for Trump to Crack Down on American Judges

Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, especially from international figures who often seek to praise and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm tactics used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media call last week was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during online criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers 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 local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Tactics

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

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad executive power, she added: “They directly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their ability 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, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“All understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service 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 attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s aims, the expert said that “impeaching a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently