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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, especially from international figures who often seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different strategy by calling on the White House to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, including an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's recent remarks occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian tactics used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online call last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to halt removal operations sending accused undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during online attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

“The administration is observing 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 assertions of broad executive power, she added: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

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 rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“All understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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