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The US President is not typically known for advice, especially from international figures who often attempt to praise and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, such as an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's latest remarks occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media call last week was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made during social media criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation 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 remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians 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 judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

“All understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently