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The US President rarely accepts counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also received 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 oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to send troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

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

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation 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 dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’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