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The US President rarely accepts advice, especially from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm methods used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only 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 local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats 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: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in recent years in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored 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 Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

“The administration is looking around at these successes and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented 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 so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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