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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, particularly from international figures who often seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted 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 received backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online call last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid online attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered 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 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple nations, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

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

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology 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 escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the government's objectives, the expert said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently