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The US President does not usually take counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's latest remarks occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid online attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, 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 product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

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

International Strongman Playbook

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

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has greater authority 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 ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

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 such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, 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 judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

On the government's objectives, the expert said that “removing a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently