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Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, particularly from international figures who often attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, including an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm methods employed by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call recently was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year 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 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

“The government 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 examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the debate by repeating their argument that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate 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, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s aims, the expert said that “removing a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently