🔗 Share this article

The US President does not usually take guidance, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, including an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian methods used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's online statement last week was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid online criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period 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 over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation 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 escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

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

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

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. 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 judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane 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 escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“All understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. 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.”

Administration Aims

On the government's aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently