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Donald Trump is not typically known for guidance, particularly from international figures who often attempt to praise and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent 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 employing comparable strong-arm tactics used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online call last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid social media criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks 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 certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in multiple countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

“The government is looking around at these successes and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening 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.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice 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,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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