Trump Figures Back El Salvador Leader's Call for US President to Target American Judges

The US President rarely accepts advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib 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 American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent intervention occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media statement recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to halt removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid online criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to resuming office this year, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

“The administration is looking around 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 examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“All understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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