🔗 Share this article

Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement last week was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to halt removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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