🔗 Share this article

Donald Trump rarely accepts counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using similar strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

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

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during social media criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

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

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

“The administration is looking around at these achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would weaken the courts,” she said.

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

“They continue to redefine the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out 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 unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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