🔗 Share this article

The US President rarely accepts advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, including an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call last week was just the latest in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during social media attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing 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 president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms 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 certainly driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the debate 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: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” 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 wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“All understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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