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Donald Trump does not usually take advice, especially from international figures who often seek to flatter and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's recent intervention occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian methods employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats 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: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

“The administration is observing at these achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has more power 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 capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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