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The US President is not typically known for guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's recent remarks occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence 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 Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during online attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, 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 the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's objectives, the expert said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently