🔗 Share this article

Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, such as an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm methods used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media call recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during social media criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in recent years in multiple countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by strongmen overseas.

“The government is looking around 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.

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding 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.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising 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 a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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