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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent remarks occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm tactics used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's online statement last week was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid social media criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts state that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, 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 laws that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading 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