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The US President rarely accepts counsel, particularly from international figures who often attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian tactics used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online statement last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid online attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

According to data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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