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Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

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

The call for the president to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

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

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Specialists say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

“The administration is observing at these achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would weaken the courts,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless 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 redefine the debate by emphasizing their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

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

Government Goals

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