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Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, particularly from international figures who often attempt to praise and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian tactics used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media statement last week was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during online criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

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

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, right after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts 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.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's aims, the expert said that “impeaching a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently