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Donald Trump does not usually take advice, particularly from international figures who often attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration 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 Maga figures, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using similar authoritarian methods employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media statement last week was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid social media attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to resuming office this year, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Tactics

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

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to 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' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s aims, the expert said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently