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Donald Trump rarely accepts counsel, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to praise and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media call recently was one more in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during social media attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

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

Increasing Risk Data

According to data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

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

In 2021, right after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed 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 Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss 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 strongmen abroad.

“The government is looking around at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

“All knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism 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