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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, especially from international figures who often seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement last week was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

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

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In 2021, right after starting a new term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

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

“They continue to redefine the debate by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

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

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, 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 unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at 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 presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s aims, the expert said that “removing a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently