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The US President rarely accepts advice, especially from international figures who often seek to praise and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's recent intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm tactics used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online call last week was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made during online attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

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

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s aims, the expert said that “impeaching a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently