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The US President rarely accepts guidance, especially from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

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

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online statement last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid online criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

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 allies coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

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

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

“The administration is observing at these achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any laws that would weaken the courts,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this judicial 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 rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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