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The US President does not usually take guidance, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's recent intervention occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian tactics used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during online criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

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

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority than this judicial 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 rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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