Trump Figures Back Bukele's Plea for US President to Target American Judiciary

The US President rarely accepts guidance, particularly from international figures who often seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, including an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm tactics used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media statement last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid online attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

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

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the federal agency, 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 surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

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

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats 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 driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the debate by emphasizing their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

“All understands 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 Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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