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The US President does not usually take guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and admire the US president.

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

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using similar strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online call last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during social media attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s objectives, the expert said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently