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The US President rarely accepts guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to praise and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's recent remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using similar authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's online statement recently was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made during social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

“The administration is observing at these achievements 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 the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the debate by emphasizing their argument that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are protected 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 leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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