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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing comparable strong-arm methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online 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 court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during social media criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

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

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system 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 free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the debate by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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