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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, including an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's latest remarks occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian methods used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement recently was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to halt deportation flights sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid online attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

“The administration is observing at these achievements and failures. 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 claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

On the government's objectives, the expert said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently