🔗 Share this article

The US President rarely accepts guidance, particularly from international figures who often attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online call recently was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to halt removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid online attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Specialists say that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after starting a new term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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