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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's latest remarks occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm methods used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement recently was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid social media attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

According to data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

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

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in several countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability 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 judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about 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 termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

“All understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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