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The US President does not usually take counsel, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's latest remarks occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian tactics used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media call recently was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made during online criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

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

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

“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 courts,” she said.

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology 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 threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both 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 government's aims, the expert said that “impeaching a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently