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The US President does not usually take guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to praise and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

The president's online statement last week was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid online criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

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

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks 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.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House 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 undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the debate by repeating their argument that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers 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 eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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