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The US President is not typically known for counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's online statement last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during online criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising violent 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 of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in several nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust 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 current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

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

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

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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