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The US President is not typically known for advice, particularly from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian methods employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media call last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid online attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

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

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

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

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

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

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the debate by repeating their claim that the executive 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 institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

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

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. 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 institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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