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The US President is not typically known for advice, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and admire the American leader.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, including an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using similar strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online call last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during online criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways 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 intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for removal 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 co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining 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 provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the debate by repeating their argument that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

“Everyone 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 federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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