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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, especially from international figures who often seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm methods employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media call last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during social media criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, 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 eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied 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 enact any legislation that would weaken the courts,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

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

Administration Aims

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