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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and admire the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call last week was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during social media attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data gathered 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 more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

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

“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 undermine the courts,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy 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 sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently