🔗 Share this article

Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, particularly from international figures who often seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

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

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's latest intervention occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian tactics used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online call recently was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during online attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of threats and coercion in the period since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples 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 weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding 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.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's aims, the expert said that “impeaching a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently