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The US President does not usually take guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by urging the White House to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's online call last week was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid social media attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in California. The president has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the debate 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' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation 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 court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

“All knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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