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The US President rarely accepts counsel, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using similar strong-arm methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid online criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

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

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

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

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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