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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, especially from international figures who often attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

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

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's online call recently was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop removal operations sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during online attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in several nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented 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 wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s aims, the expert said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently