Maga Supporters Endorse Bukele's Plea for Trump to Crack Down on US Judiciary

Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, especially from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's latest intervention occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's online call last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during social media attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send troops into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

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

In spring, the watchdog group 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 fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the debate by repeating their claim that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy 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, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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