🔗 Share this article

The US President does not usually take guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's recent remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using similar strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during social media attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

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

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

“The government is observing 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.

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s objectives, the expert said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently