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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian methods used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's online call recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during online criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state 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 detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models 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 undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad executive power, she added: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

On 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