🔗 Share this article

The US President rarely accepts advice, especially from international figures who often attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the White House 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, such as an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm methods used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media call last week was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during social media criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send troops into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

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

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

“The government is observing at these achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, 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 “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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