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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, particularly from international figures who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's recent intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm tactics used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online statement last week was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid social media attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is on track to exceed the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

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

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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