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The US President does not usually take advice, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, such as an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's recent remarks occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's online statement recently was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for impeachment 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 the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently