🔗 Share this article

The US President does not usually take advice, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and admire the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian methods used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

The president's online call recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

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

“The administration is observing at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority 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, professor of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently