🔗 Share this article

Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's latest remarks occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm methods used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online call last week was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the threats 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 coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase 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 co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

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

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the debate by repeating their argument that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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