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Donald Trump is not typically known for guidance, particularly from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's recent remarks occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm methods employed by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's online call recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to halt removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

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

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned 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 enact any laws that would weaken the courts,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by repeating their claim that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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