🔗 Share this article

Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm tactics used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media statement last week was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data gathered 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 investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

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

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

“All understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s aims, the expert said that “impeaching a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently