🔗 Share this article

The US President rarely accepts guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using similar authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online statement last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid social media attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

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

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

“The government is looking around at these achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned 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 customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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