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Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and admire the American leader.

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

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's recent remarks occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian tactics used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media call recently was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid social media attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

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

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; 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 rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted 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 Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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