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Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, including an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm tactics used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's online call recently was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during online criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send troops into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, 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 political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

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

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms 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 definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

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

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the debate by emphasizing their argument that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

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

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

On the government's aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently