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Donald Trump does not usually take advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's recent remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using similar strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's online statement last week was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during social media criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to send troops into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding 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 the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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