Trump Figures Endorse Bukele's Call for Trump to Crack Down on US Judiciary

Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

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

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm methods used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement recently was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during online criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, 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 pointed to a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

According to data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

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

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

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

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

“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.

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the debate by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power 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 legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's aims, 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