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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's latest remarks occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm methods used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media statement recently was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during social media criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

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

International Authoritarian Playbook

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

In 2021, right after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

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

“They continue to redefine the discussion by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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