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Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, particularly from international figures who often seek to praise and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, including an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's recent intervention occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian methods used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid online criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

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

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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