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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

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

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's latest remarks occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's online statement recently was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid online criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration 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 strongmen abroad.

“The government is looking around 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.

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the debate 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' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions 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 international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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