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The US President does not usually take advice, especially from international figures who often seek to praise and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

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

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic 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 series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, 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 residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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