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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

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

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm tactics used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's online call last week was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during social media attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

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

In several years ago, right after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“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 separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the government's aims, the expert said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently