🔗 Share this article

The US President does not usually take guidance, especially from international figures who frequently seek to praise and admire the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's latest intervention occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media call recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during online criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only 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.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade 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 remove the nation's attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

“Everyone knows 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 these are dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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