🔗 Share this article

The US President does not usually take advice, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, including an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable strong-arm methods employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation'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 presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

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

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient 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 understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s objectives, the expert said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently