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The US President rarely accepts advice, especially from international figures who often seek to praise and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's latest intervention occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable strong-arm methods employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media statement 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 court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made during online criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

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

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

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

“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 courts,” she said.

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

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their argument 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 authority of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

“Everyone 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 those are both dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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