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

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian methods used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt deportation flights sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during social media criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists 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 alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks 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 associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate 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 public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's aims, the expert said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently