🔗 Share this article

Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online call recently was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid social media attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

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

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

“The government is looking around at these achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the debate by emphasizing their argument that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology 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 spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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