🔗 Share this article

Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, especially from international figures who often attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid social media criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is on track to exceed the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls 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 co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by strongmen abroad.

“The administration is looking around at these successes 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 Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the debate by repeating their argument that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs 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 termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

“Everyone knows 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 the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

On the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently