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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm methods employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online statement recently was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

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

The judge had issued injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In several years ago, immediately after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen 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 weaken the courts,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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