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Donald Trump rarely accepts counsel, especially from international figures who often seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm methods employed by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online statement recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid social media criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

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

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Specialists say that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

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

In 2021, right after starting a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

“The government is observing at these successes and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any legislation that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the debate by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments 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 written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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