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The US President rarely accepts advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

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

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm methods used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online call recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

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

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad 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 continue to 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 legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks 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