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Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, such as an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent intervention occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian methods employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media call recently was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid online attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to send troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to resuming office this year, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

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 detailed report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

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

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the courts 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 president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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