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Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different strategy by calling on the White House 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, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's recent intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid online criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

“The government is looking around at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would weaken the courts,” she said.

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation 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 court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently