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Donald Trump does not usually take advice, especially from international figures who often seek to flatter and admire the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's recent intervention occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian methods used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online call last week was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during online attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple countries, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader'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 explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed 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.

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On the government's aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently