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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

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

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian tactics used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement recently was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during social media 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 latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

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

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by repeating 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 other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability 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 judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer 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 knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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