🔗 Share this article

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

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of 630 threats.

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

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for removal 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.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the debate by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs 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 escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently