Maga Supporters Endorse Bukele's Plea for Trump to Target American Judiciary

Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and admire the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the White House to follow his example in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using similar authoritarian methods employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media call recently was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to halt removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during social media criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

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 Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

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

“The government is looking around 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 attack the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

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

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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