Maga Supporters Back Bukele's Plea for US President to Target American Judiciary

The US President is not typically known for counsel, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's recent intervention occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian tactics used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online statement recently was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid social media attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands 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.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless 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 claim that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity 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 democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

“Everyone knows 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 specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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