🔗 Share this article

The US President does not usually take counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian tactics used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

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

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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