🔗 Share this article

The US President rarely accepts advice, particularly from international figures who often attempt to praise and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's recent remarks occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online statement recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt deportation flights sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

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

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

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

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say 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 president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries 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 gunman targeting the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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