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The US President is not typically known for guidance, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid social media attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple 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 top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard 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 think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

On the government's objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently