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Donald Trump does not usually take advice, particularly from international figures who often seek to flatter and admire the American leader.

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

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media call last week was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during social media criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, first 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, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

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

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

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

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

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

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate 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, academic 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 spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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