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The US President is not typically known for counsel, especially from international figures who often seek to flatter and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's latest remarks occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm tactics used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media statement last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid social media attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

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

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, 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 national level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment 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 the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

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

In several years ago, right after starting a second term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats 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 president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

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

“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.

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad executive power, she added: “They openly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“Everyone 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 these are specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently