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Donald Trump is not typically known for guidance, especially from international figures who often attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

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

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm methods employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call recently was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

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

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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