Maga Supporters Endorse Bukele's Call for US President to Target US Judiciary

The US President is not typically known for guidance, especially from international figures who frequently seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader 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 received support from Maga figures, such as an X post 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 latest intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm tactics used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's online call last week was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid social media attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

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

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad executive power, she added: “They directly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the debate by repeating their argument that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

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

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting 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 Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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