The US President is not typically known for advice, particularly from international figures who often attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.
However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”
His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.
Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence
Analysts note that the leader's latest intervention occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian methods employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.
The president's online statement last week was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.
Attacks on Oregon Justice
Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid online attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.
The judge had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in California. The president has been eager to send troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.
Record of Targeting Justices
The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.
Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.
Increasing Risk Data
According to 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 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred threats.
The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.
Analyst Insights on Threat Sources
Specialists state that the threats are a product of the language coming from top government officials.
In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”
Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”
Global Authoritarian Playbook
That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in multiple nations, including by Bukele.
In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.
The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.
Weakening Court Autonomy
Experts say that the intimidation 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 remove judges Trump disapproves of.
Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen overseas.
“The administration is looking around at these successes and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would weaken the courts,” she said.
Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.
“They persist in redefine the discussion 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: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”
Coercion Methods
Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.
She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.
“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.
“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”
Administration Aims
Regarding the government's aims, the expert said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently
