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Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's recent intervention occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm methods employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media call last week was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made during social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the intimidation 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 claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe 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: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the government's objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently