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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, particularly from international figures who often seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm methods used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement last week was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid social media criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several nations, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system 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 authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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