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

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

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call last week was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights sending accused undocumented individuals to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

“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.

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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