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

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

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

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian methods used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media call recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid online criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

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

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

“The administration is observing 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.

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the debate by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s objectives, the expert said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently