Trump Figures Back El Salvador Leader's Plea for Trump to Crack Down on American Judiciary

Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, such as an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid online criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst 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 comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president'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 ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

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

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating repeatedly 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 greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

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 warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son 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. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently