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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, particularly from international figures who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian methods employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call recently was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid online attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say 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 detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several judges on the constitutional 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 the nation's judiciary 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 seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

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

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “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 murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

On the government'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