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The US President rarely accepts advice, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's latest remarks occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian tactics used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement recently was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, 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 persist in reframe the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' 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 judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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