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The US President is not typically known for guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online statement recently was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during online attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise 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 co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

“The government is looking around at these successes and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would undermine the courts,” she said.

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

“They continue to redefine the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

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

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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