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Donald Trump does not usually take advice, especially from international figures who often attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different strategy 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 US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm tactics used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online call last week was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

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

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after starting a second term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad executive power, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly 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 judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“All understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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