🔗 Share this article

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

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian methods used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid social media criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed 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 calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

“The administration is observing at these successes and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any legislation that would undermine the courts,” she said.

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

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

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding 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 democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently