🔗 Share this article

The US President does not usually take advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement last week was just the latest in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched 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 achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding 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 the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, 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 unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

“Everyone understands 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 specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the government's aims, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently