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

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online call recently was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made during social media criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions 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 undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

“The administration is looking around at these achievements and failures. 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 persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by repeating their claim that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding 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.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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