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The US President is not typically known for guidance, especially from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm methods employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement last week was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid online attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Specialists say that the intimidation are a result 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 highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, right after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

“All understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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