🔗 Share this article

Donald Trump does not usually take advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's latest remarks occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using similar authoritarian tactics used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media call last week was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid online attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

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

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the debate by repeating their claim that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science 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 warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the government's objectives, the expert said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently