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Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and admire the American leader.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm tactics used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online statement last week was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during social media attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

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

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the threats 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 claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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