🔗 Share this article

Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, particularly from international figures who often seek to praise and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm tactics used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement recently 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 ridicule of a court's ruling to halt deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during social media attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

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

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

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

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

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

“The government is looking around at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any laws that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

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

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

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’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