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Donald Trump rarely accepts counsel, particularly from international figures who often seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian tactics used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement last week was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during online attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

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

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

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

Administration Aims

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