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The US President rarely accepts guidance, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to praise and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's latest intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm tactics used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call recently was just the latest in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during online attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several countries, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a second term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

On the government's objectives, the expert said that “impeaching a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently