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The US President does not usually take advice, particularly from international figures who frequently attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

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

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, including an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media statement last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during social media criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

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

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the debate by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently