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The US President does not usually take guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different strategy by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's online statement last week was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid online attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts state that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the debate by repeating their claim that the executive has more power 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 capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

On the administration’s aims, the expert said that “impeaching a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently