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Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, particularly from international figures who often seek to praise and admire the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's recent remarks occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

The president's online call last week was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid social media attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

“The government is looking around at these achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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