🔗 Share this article

The US President is not typically known for guidance, particularly from international figures who often seek to flatter and admire the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian tactics used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement last week was just the latest in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's high of 630 threats.

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

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

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

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

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

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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