🔗 Share this article

The US President does not usually take advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and admire the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media call last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation 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 founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking 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 several nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad 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 reframe the debate by emphasizing their argument that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer 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.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s aims, the expert said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently