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Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's latest remarks occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm tactics used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to halt deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid social media criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

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

Rising Risk Data

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure 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 free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy 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, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

On the administration’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