🔗 Share this article

The US President does not usually take advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, including an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian tactics used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during online criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts state 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 detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed 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 Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

“The government is observing at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening 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 the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

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

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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