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The US President rarely accepts counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's latest intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop deportation flights sending accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid social media criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

“The government is observing at these successes and setbacks. 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 relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim 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 legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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