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The US President does not usually take guidance, especially from foreign leaders who often seek to praise and compliment the US president.

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

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, including an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian tactics used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's online statement last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid online criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state 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 detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

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

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; 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 undermine judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad executive power, she added: “They directly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s objectives, the expert said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently