COMMENTARY If President Trump hopes to replicate Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele's authoritarian conquest of the judicary, tiny El Salvador may have a large effect on America's democratic future.
We once hoped America was the future of El Salvador.
Now El Salvador could be the future of America.
Or as Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele would say: Oopsie!
That was Bukele鈥檚 smart-ass response 鈥� the sort of riposte you get from the self-proclaimed 鈥渨orld鈥檚 coolest dictator鈥� 鈥� to U.S. District Judge James Boasberg鈥檚 order last weekend to halt the Trump administration鈥檚 deportation of more than 200 Venezuelan migrants.
They were sent to a high-security prison in El Salvador, where the U.S. will pay Bukele鈥檚 government millions to house them.
When the flight arrived there in apparent defiance of Boasberg鈥檚 directive, Bukele mocked the judge on X: 鈥淥opsie ... Too Late.鈥�
READ MORE: Rubio harps on U.S. democracy 鈥� after hugging Salvadoran autocracy
Boasberg feared the Trump Administration was making questionable use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act and arbitrarily deeming the Venezuelans 鈥渢errorist鈥� members of a violent Venezuelan criminal gang, Tren de Aragua. And Boasberg looks to be right, since many of the deported migrants, according to court records, were tagged as gang members, with no due process, even though they had no criminal history in the U.S. or Venezuela.
But President Trump鈥檚 own response has been Bukelean: he鈥檚 flipping Boasberg the same middle finger he鈥檚 flashed at, say, casino contractors he鈥檚 been accused of stiffing over the years. He鈥檚 calling the judge 鈥渁 radical left lunatic.鈥� And he鈥檚 demanding his impeachment 鈥� as is Trump鈥檚 co-president, billionaire Elon Musk.
Now, live from San Salvador, Bukele has upped the ante , in support of Trump鈥檚 middle digit, that the court challenges Trump faces from Boasberg and other judges who dare question his executive prerogatives mean that 鈥渢he U.S. is facing a judicial coup.鈥�
And that 鈥� if you care about the rule of law in the Americas and America鈥檚 role-model role in it 鈥� is where things get chilling.
Trump is still trying to figure out how to tear down the U.S. judicial branch's independence. His cheerleader Bukele has accomplished it in El Salvador.
That鈥檚 because while Trump is still trying to figure out how to tear down the independence of the judicial branch of U.S. government, Bukele has already accomplished it in El Salvador.
Three years ago, after neutering his country鈥檚 legislative branch by sending in troops to occupy the Legislative Assembly, Bukele then had the Supreme Court鈥檚 justices tossed and replaced with loyal lackeys.
They鈥檝e looked the other way as he鈥檚 won unconstitutional re-election and ordered indiscriminate arrests 鈥� a sweep that has admittedly reined in El Salvador鈥檚 grave gang violence, but which has left as much as 2% of the population incarcerated, often unjustly.
Authoritarian marketing
So I asked Douglas Farah, president of in Washington D.C. and a Latin America expert who follows Bukele closely, what effect the Salvadoran leader鈥檚 cheerleading for Trump could have here in the U.S.
Farah pointed out that while Bukele rules one of the world鈥檚 smallest countries, he enjoys outsize influence because his iron-fisted crackdown on crime has proven popular inside and outside El Salvador.
鈥淏ukele has successfully marketed an authoritarian, deeply anti-democratic model,鈥� Farah wrote to me. 鈥淎nd this is deeply attractive to authoritarians like Trump 鈥� who view the rule of law as applicable only to meet their designs.鈥�
In fact, Trump and Trump lieutenants like Secretary of State Marco Rubio 鈥� who calls the Salvadoran one of the model 鈥渄emocratic leaders in our hemisphere鈥� 鈥� do applaud Bukele.
So to hear him warn of an American 鈥渏udicial coup鈥� only emboldens Trump to double down on efforts to defy if not dismantle America鈥檚 uncooperative judiciary 鈥� which is putting up checks-and-balances barriers to his tsunami of executive orders gutting the federal government.
As if that weren鈥檛 scary enough 鈥� especially given that in the wake of Trump鈥檚 attacks on Boasberg, many other federal judges are 鈥� consider the hemispheric effect.
While Bukele鈥檚 full-throated endorsement pumps Trump, Trump鈥檚 crusade in turn promises to buoy like-minded leaders across Latin America and the Caribbean 鈥� who will naturally conclude: Hey, if even el l铆der yanqui is aping El Salvador, why shouldn鈥檛 we?
It would be muscle music to right-wingers like Argentine President and Trump BFF Javier Milei, left-wingers like Colombian President and former guerrilla Gustavo Petro, and any other head of state who's chafing under the pesky inconveniences of separation-of-powers democracy.
Farah warns that Bukele鈥檚 short-term autocrat-gratification model risks the long-term 鈥渆nd of the democratic state.鈥�
That certainly looks like El Salvador鈥檚 future. And 鈥� oopsie! 鈥� maybe now America鈥檚.
