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The US President does not usually take counsel, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media call last week was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid social media attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

“The administration is looking around at these successes and setbacks. 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 persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

On the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently