Maga Supporters Endorse El Salvador Leader's Plea for Trump to Target American Judges

Donald Trump does not usually take advice, especially from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's recent remarks occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using similar authoritarian methods employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media statement recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid social media attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts 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 “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

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

“They continue to redefine the debate by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection 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 current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

“All understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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