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Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online statement last week was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during online criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the threats are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

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

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

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

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

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the government's aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently