Maga Supporters Endorse El Salvador Leader's Plea for US President to Target American Judges

Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian tactics used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call last week was just the latest in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during online criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in several countries, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

“The administration is looking around 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 nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the debate by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries 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 gunman targeting the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

On the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently