🔗 Share this article

The US President does not usually take counsel, especially from international figures who often attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable strong-arm methods used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during online attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

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

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of 630 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 threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

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

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In 2021, right after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief 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 sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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