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The US President does not usually take counsel, especially from international figures who often attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm methods employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online statement recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid online criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump 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 “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by 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 state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire 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 several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

“The administration 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 courts,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

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 Orbán 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 customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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