Maga Supporters Endorse El Salvador Leader's Call for Trump to Crack Down on American Judiciary

Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media call last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid online criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the intimidation 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 White House allies and allies align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

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

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

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

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the debate by repeating their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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