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

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct approach 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 garnered support from Trump allies, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's latest remarks occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using similar authoritarian methods employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, 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 claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls 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.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

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

In several years ago, right after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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