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The US President is not typically known for advice, particularly from international figures who often attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's recent remarks occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian methods employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement recently was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during online attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, 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 judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 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 cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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