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Donald Trump rarely accepts counsel, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online statement recently was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during online criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

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

Rising Risk Data

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric 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 rising violent 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 the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

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

In 2021, right after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

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

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“All understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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