🔗 Share this article

Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's recent intervention occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian methods employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's online statement recently was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, 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 online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

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

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability 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, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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