Donald Trump rarely accepts counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.
But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”
His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.
Growing Threats to Court Autonomy
Experts note that the leader's recent remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm tactics used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.
The president's social media call last week was just the latest in a long series of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.
Criticism on Federal Judge
The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during social media attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.
Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.
Record of Targeting Judges
The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.
Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.
Increasing Threat Statistics
According to data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.
The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.
Analyst Insights on Threat Sources
Experts state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.
In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”
Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”
International Authoritarian Playbook
That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, including by Bukele.
In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.
The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.
Weakening Judicial Independence
Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.
Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.
“The administration is looking around at these successes and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any laws that would undermine the courts,” she said.
Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.
“They continue to redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”
Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”
Intimidation Tactics
Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.
She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.
“All knows 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 are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”
Government Goals
On the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently
