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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, particularly from international figures who often seek to flatter and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, including an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online call last week was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during social media attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

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

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

“The government is looking around at these successes and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any laws that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. 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 judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“All understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

On the administration’s objectives, the expert said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently