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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to praise and admire the American leader.

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

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm methods employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online call recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid online attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to resuming office this year, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative 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 the current year.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms 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 definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen 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.

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a co-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 other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments 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 global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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