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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's recent remarks occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement recently was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations sending accused undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during online criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults 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 disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

“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.

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection 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 decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

Regarding the government's objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently