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Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, particularly from international figures who often attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian methods employed by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online statement recently was just the latest in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during online attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in California. The president has been eager to send troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats 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 president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the executive has more power 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 ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

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

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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