🔗 Share this article

The US President does not usually take guidance, particularly from international figures who often attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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