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Donald Trump rarely accepts counsel, especially from international figures who frequently seek to praise and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's recent intervention occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using similar authoritarian tactics used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media statement last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid online criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

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

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands 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.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

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

“The administration is observing 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 examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the debate by emphasizing their claim that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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