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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, particularly from international figures who often attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's recent remarks occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online call last week was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations sending accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during social media attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

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

Rising Risk Data

According to data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a product 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 allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine 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' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor 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 the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

“All understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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