🔗 Share this article

The US President is not typically known for guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to praise and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing 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 supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

“The administration is looking around at these successes and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly 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 greater authority than this judicial 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 weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

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

Government Goals

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