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The US President is not typically known for guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian methods used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's online statement last week was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid social media attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

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

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after starting a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by strongmen overseas.

“The government 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 courts,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently