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The US President rarely accepts advice, especially from international figures who often seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

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

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's recent remarks occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online call recently was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in several countries, 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 attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

“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 weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' 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 think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed 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 Marshals Service. And those are both specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s aims, the expert said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently