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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian methods employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media call last week was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to halt removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid social media criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly 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 repeating their argument that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology 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 dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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