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The US President rarely accepts counsel, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm methods used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online statement last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid online attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

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

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for removal 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 the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by repeating their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity 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, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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