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The US President does not usually take guidance, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, including an social media message by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian tactics used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online call recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid online attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just 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 violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

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

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

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

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard 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 sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

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

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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