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The US President is not typically known for guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm methods used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online call last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

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

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to send troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 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 surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

On the government's objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently