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Donald Trump rarely accepts counsel, especially from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, including an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call recently was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations sending accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during social media attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, Trump 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 the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader'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.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor 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 achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

“All understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the government's objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently