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Donald Trump rarely accepts counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

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

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's recent intervention occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using similar strong-arm methods used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during social media criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered 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 inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the debate by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

“All knows 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 those are both specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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