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The US President rarely accepts counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's recent remarks occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian methods used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop deportation flights sending accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid social media criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In 2021, right after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by stating 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.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, 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 residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently