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The US President rarely accepts advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian tactics used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online statement last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during online attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing 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 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen overseas.

“The government is looking around 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.

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, 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 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

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

Administration Aims

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