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Donald Trump rarely accepts counsel, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian methods employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media call last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled 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 stop removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made during online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence 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 detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently