🔗 Share this article

Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement last week was just the latest in a long series of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made during online attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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