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Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm methods employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media call recently was just the latest in a long series of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation 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 claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

“The administration is looking around at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently