🔗 Share this article

Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, particularly from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence 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, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media call recently was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid online criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in several nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their argument that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats 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 customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant 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 Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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