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The US President is not typically known for counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, including an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's online statement recently was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to halt deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid social media attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts say 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 claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate 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: “Judges' sole safeguard 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 judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

On the administration’s objectives, the expert said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently