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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm tactics used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's online statement last week was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid social media attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

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 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

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

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the debate by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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