Trump Figures Back Bukele's Call for Trump to Target American Judges

The US President rarely accepts advice, especially from international figures who frequently seek to praise and admire the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, including an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call last week was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the debate by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

On the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently