🔗 Share this article

The US President is not typically known for counsel, especially from international figures who often attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's online call recently was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during social media attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government'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, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In 2021, right after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

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

“The administration is observing 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 the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the debate by repeating their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, 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 recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges 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 criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

Regarding the government's aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently