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The US President is not typically known for counsel, particularly from international figures who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online call last week was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to halt removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during social media attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

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 intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the intimidation 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 claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

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

Global Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several nations, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

“The government is looking around at these achievements 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 the advisor's relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by repeating their argument that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy 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.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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