Trump Figures Back Bukele's Call for Trump to Target American Judges

The US President does not usually take advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online call last week was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to halt deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during social media criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been common in recent years in multiple countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples 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 laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

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

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing 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' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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