🔗 Share this article

The US President is not typically known for counsel, particularly from international figures who often attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's recent remarks occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian tactics used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media call recently was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid social media attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by strongmen overseas.

“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 courts,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

On the government's objectives, the expert said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently