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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm methods used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement recently was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting 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 policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates 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 the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

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

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers 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 trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently