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The US President rarely accepts advice, particularly from international figures who often attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using similar strong-arm methods used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media call last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to halt removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

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

Immergut had issued injunctions blocking 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 leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by emphasizing their claim that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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