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Donald Trump rarely accepts counsel, especially from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent remarks occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian methods employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts say that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising violent 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 ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

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

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

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

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken 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 studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently