🔗 Share this article

Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, particularly from international figures who often attempt to praise and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's recent remarks occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm methods employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement last week was just the latest in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during social media criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation 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 alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models 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 laws that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

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

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“All knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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