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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 Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent remarks occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media call last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid online criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several nations, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

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

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

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

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

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“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 federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the government's objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently