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The US President rarely accepts counsel, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm tactics used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during online attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

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

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

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

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting Salas.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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