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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and admire the US president.

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

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm methods employed by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's online statement last week was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid online criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Specialists say that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples 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 laws that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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