🔗 Share this article

Donald Trump is not typically known for guidance, particularly from international figures who often attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

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

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's recent remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm tactics used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement last week was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid online criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Specialists say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the debate by repeating their argument that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, 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 documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism 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 so hard to do. {Right now|Currently