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Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, including an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid online attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the threats are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation 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 GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

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

In 2021, right after commencing a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly attack 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 debate by repeating their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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