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The US President is not typically known for counsel, particularly from international figures who often seek to flatter and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different strategy by calling on the White House to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched 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 tactics used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made during social media criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

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

In several years ago, right after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

“The administration is observing at these successes and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would weaken the courts,” she said.

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's objectives, 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