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The US President does not usually take advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using similar strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online call recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made during social media attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

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

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

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

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's aims, Scheppele said that “removing a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently