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

Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using similar strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online statement recently was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during social media criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to resuming office this year, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase 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 co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

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

“The administration is observing at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by repeating their claim that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic 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 documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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