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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using similar strong-arm methods employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media call last week was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to halt deportation flights sending accused undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during online criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults 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 Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the debate by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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