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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online call recently was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid online attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in California. The president has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

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

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the intimidation are a result 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 align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

“The administration is looking around at these achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would weaken the courts,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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