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

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also garnered support from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online call last week was one more in a long series of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid online attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send troops into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Tactics

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

In 2021, right after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation 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 president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched 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 achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy 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, massively problematic for judicial review 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 such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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