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Donald Trump rarely accepts counsel, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, including an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm tactics used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call last week was one more in a long series of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid social media attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the threats are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several justices 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 Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding 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.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor 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 warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

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

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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