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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, particularly from international figures who often attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement last week was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during social media attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

“The administration is looking around at these successes and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would weaken the courts,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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