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The US President is not typically known for counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

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

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during online criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists say 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 allies align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the debate by repeating their claim that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. 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 judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On 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