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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's latest intervention occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online statement last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid social media attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In 2021, right after starting a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

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

“They continue to redefine the debate by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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