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The US President rarely accepts guidance, especially from international figures who often attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

The president's online statement last week was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid social media criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in multiple countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

“The government is looking around at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any legislation that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection 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 sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

“Everyone understands 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 dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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