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Donald Trump does not usually take advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, including an social media message by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian tactics used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media call recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during social media attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

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

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

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

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action 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.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

“The government is looking around at these successes and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any laws that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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