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Donald Trump is not typically known for guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online call last week was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during online attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

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

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In several years ago, right after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

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

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding 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 pass any legislation that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

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

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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