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The US President rarely accepts advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian tactics used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's online statement recently was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during social media attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send troops into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

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

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

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

In several years ago, immediately after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

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

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation 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 court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, 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 judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’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