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

Donald Trump rarely accepts counsel, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian tactics used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call recently was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid social media criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send troops into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on 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 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, 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. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

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

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had learned 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 legislation that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently