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The US President is not typically known for guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

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

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, such as an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm tactics used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's online call last week was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during social media criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In 2021, right after starting a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad executive power, she added: “They openly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic 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 spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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