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The US President does not usually take advice, particularly from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, including an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm methods employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online statement recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during social media attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed 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 research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric 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 allies align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling 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.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

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

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the debate by repeating their argument that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection 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, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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