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Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, including an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

The president's online call recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during social media attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send troops into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

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

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university'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 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

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

In several years ago, right after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the debate by emphasizing their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s objectives, 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