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Donald Trump is not typically known for guidance, especially from international figures who often seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's online statement recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during social media criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats 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 threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the discussion 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: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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