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

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's latest intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm tactics used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to halt deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during social media criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after starting a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians 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 undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion 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: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening 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

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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