🔗 Share this article

The US President does not usually take counsel, especially from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian tactics used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own 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 leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid social media attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation 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 “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

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

Global Authoritarian Playbook

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 second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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