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Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the White House to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's recent remarks occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online call last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during social media criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

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

Expert Analysis 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 detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

“The administration is observing at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the government's objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently