Maga Figures Back Bukele's Plea for Trump to Target US Judges

The US President does not usually take advice, especially from international figures who often seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different strategy by calling on the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm tactics used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made during social media criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“All understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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