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The US President does not usually take advice, particularly from international figures who often attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent 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 strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid social media attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

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

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions 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 repeating their argument that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies 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 “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting Salas.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s aims, the expert said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently