🔗 Share this article

Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, especially from international figures who often seek to praise and admire the American leader.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's recent remarks occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm tactics used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's online call recently was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during social media attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

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

Weakening Court Autonomy

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

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly 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 executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts 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.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán 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 unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

On the administration’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