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Donald Trump does not usually take advice, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to praise and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also garnered 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

Analysts say that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time 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 rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement recently was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to resuming office this year, the president urged his followers 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 risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

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

Expert Insights 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 comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

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

International Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and Putin, 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 unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

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

Administration Aims

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