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Donald Trump does not usually take advice, particularly from international figures who often seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's latest intervention occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian tactics used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online call recently was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during social media attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to resuming office this year, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after starting a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

“The government is observing at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless claims 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 government structure.

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

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s objectives, the expert said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently