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The US President does not usually take guidance, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's latest remarks occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian methods employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during social media criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

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

In several years ago, immediately after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

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 system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

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

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

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, 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 highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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