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Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media statement recently was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

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

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation 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 the political system.”

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 the Russian, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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