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The US President does not usually take advice, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to praise and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media call last week was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid online attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

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 US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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