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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, especially from international figures who often seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, 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 note that the leader's latest intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's online statement recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during social media attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

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 cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by strongmen 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.

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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