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The US President does not usually take advice, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, including an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using similar strong-arm tactics used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement recently was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during online criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts say that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

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

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

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

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had learned from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad executive power, she added: “They directly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. 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

On the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently