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The US President does not usually take advice, especially from international figures who often attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct 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 Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media statement last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

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

International Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s objectives, the expert said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently