🔗 Share this article

The US President is not typically known for guidance, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian methods used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement recently was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during social media criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, 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 authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the debate by repeating their argument that the executive 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. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the government's objectives, 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