Maga figures back Bukele’s call for Trump to crack down on US judges | Donald Trump

Donald Trump is not known for taking advice, especially from foreign leaders who want to flatter and compliment the US president.

But El Salvador’s authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele took a different tack, urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing “corrupt judges.”

Trump’s call for action against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures; This includes a one-time X post Close to Trump ally Elon Muskwho is in the past Increased Bukele’s calls To blame US judges.

Experts say Bukele’s latest intervention comes at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and at a time when the Trump administration is using the same authoritarian tactics that authoritarians in countries like Turkey, Hungary, India and Bukele’s own El Salvador have used to subvert democratic accountability.

Bukele’s online interview last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations against the US legal system. March claim that the United States “faces a judicial coup” and his mockery A federal judge’s order to halt deportation flights that send accused illegal immigrants into his country’s brutal prison system.

The call for Bukele’s impeachment also came amid social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential counsel Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk and Trump in a recent press rant.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon and then in California. Trump is trying to send troops into Portland, which the president has described as “war-torn,” based on small, nonviolent protests outside the city’s homeland security facility.

Miller, bondi And Musk has a long history of attacking judges Decided against Trump’s executive orders or otherwise obstructed the administration’s political agenda. Before taking office again this year, Trump led his followers against judges presiding over civil and criminal cases. was subjected to threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement officials and judges have cited an atmosphere of increased threat and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Accordingly Data collected by the US Marshals ServiceFrom 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats against 395 federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022 and 2024, the first year of published records, and is on track to surpass 2023’s record of 630 threats.

Threats don’t just occur at the federal level. Data from Princeton’s Bridging the Gaps Initiative It shows that there were at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, stalking or violence against judges at the local level in 2025.

Experts say the threats are the product of rhetoric from senior management.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and deeply irresponsible statements by members of the Trump administration and their allies coincide with increasing violent posts on social media.” The report noted “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges on social media platforms between January and February 2025, the first month of the Trump administration.”

Heidi Beirich, co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly led to harsh online backlash and calls for impeachment of judges. Targeting the judiciary is another step in Trump’s march toward authoritarianism.”

The march towards authoritarianism has been widely practiced in many countries in recent years, including Bukele.

Just after starting the second term in 2021 despite constitutional prohibitionsBukele’s loyalists in parliament voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges who provoked his anger by making decisions contrary to the corona measures were replaced by names chosen by Bukele himself.

The move was a reflection of Viktor Orbán’s reshaping of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Judicial purges in 2019; and trying to make similar moves Israel And Poland.

Experts say the threats and rhetorical attacks in the United States could be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that does not give the executive branch an easy way to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who studies authoritarian decline in democracies, said the Trump administration has learned from examples set by authoritarians abroad.

“The administration looks at these successes and failures. They know they cannot pass any legislation that will weaken the judiciary,” he said.

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the debate by repeating the argument that the president has more power than this other equal branch, which is not how separation of powers works.”

Leonard said: “Judges’ only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats, as well as the weakening of institutional legitimacy, can cause judges to think twice about decisions made against the current administration, which of course is hugely problematic for judicial review and democracy.”

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international relations at Princeton University.autocratic legalism“He spoke about the increasing threats to judges by the likes of Orbán and Putin and in the United States.

He pointed to a so-called wave:pizza doxxings“This year, judges received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient identified as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed in 2020 by a gunman who targeted Salas at the judge’s home.

“Everybody understands what this means. ‘We know where you live. ‘We’re coming for you,'” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service, both of which are specialized police units institutionally within the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi is leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Of the administration’s goals, Scheppele said, “Removing a federal judge will almost certainly not happen because it’s so hard to do. I don’t think the Trump administration’s desire right now is to remove judges by impeachment. It’s to scare some of the justices enough to make them think twice about ruling against the administration.”

He said: “Bukele knows how to play this game. He is very talented at it. I am not surprised that he is commenting on the US crisis and cheering for Trump. He knows that Trump lives on the internet; he also showers kindness.”

Beirich said: “It’s not surprising that someone like Bukele or Hungary’s Orbán would do this, given their autocratic behavior. But an American president who supposedly supports democracy should know better.”