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The US President rarely accepts guidance, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement recently was one more in a long series of provocations and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during social media criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to send troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common 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, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models 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 courts,” she said.

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the debate by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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