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The US President is not typically known for counsel, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's latest remarks occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call recently was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to halt removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple nations, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

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.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

“The government is looking around at these achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic 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 Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“All understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

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

Administration Aims

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