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Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm tactics used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online statement recently was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid online criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

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

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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