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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, including an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian tactics used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say 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 detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

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

Global Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

“All understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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