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Donald Trump does not usually take advice, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using similar strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement last week was one more in a long series of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop removal operations sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid social media attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to 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.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered 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.

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s aims, 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