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

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm tactics used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online statement recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during social media attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 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 shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system 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 authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models 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 laws that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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