The US President is not typically known for counsel, especially from international figures who often attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.
However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”
The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.
Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence
Analysts note that the leader's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.
The president's social media statement last week was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.
Attacks on Oregon Justice
Bukele's demand for removal was also made during social media criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.
The judge had issued injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.
History of Attacking Justices
Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.
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 White House.
Rising Risk Data
According to data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's high of 630 threats.
The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.
Expert Analysis on Threat Sources
Experts say that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.
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 supporters align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”
Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”
Global Authoritarian Tactics
This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, including by the Salvadoran.
In 2021, immediately after starting a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.
The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.
Weakening Court Autonomy
Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.
Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.
“The administration is observing at these successes and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.
Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.
“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”
Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”
Coercion Methods
Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating 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 child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.
“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.
“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”
Administration Aims
On the government's objectives, the expert said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently
