Maga Figures Back Bukele's Call for US President to Crack Down on US Judiciary

The US President is not typically known for advice, particularly from international figures who often attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media call last week was one more in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during online criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase 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 threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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