🔗 Share this article

The US President does not usually take counsel, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt 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 supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian tactics used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during online criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks 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 definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned 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 pass any legislation that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

Regarding the government's aims, the expert said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently