🔗 Share this article

Donald Trump does not usually take advice, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using similar strong-arm tactics used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

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

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their claim that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. 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 judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

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

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s objectives, the expert said that “removing a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently