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The US President is not typically known for guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

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

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online call last week was one more in a long series of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid online criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating violent 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 initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the debate by repeating their argument that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity 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.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising 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 customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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