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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian tactics used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement last week was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid social media criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Tactics

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

In 2021, right after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their argument that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats 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 Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently