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The US President rarely accepts counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian tactics used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement recently was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid social media criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

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

Government Goals

On the government's objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently