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The US President does not usually take advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

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

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm methods employed by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement recently was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights sending accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid online criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

“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 undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

On the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently