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The US President rarely accepts counsel, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm methods employed by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement last week was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during online attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

“The administration is observing at these successes and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection 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 think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On the government's objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently