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The US President is not typically known for guidance, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

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

The call for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media call recently was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to halt deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid social media criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

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

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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