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Donald Trump is not typically known for guidance, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media call last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made during social media attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data gathered 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 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

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

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. 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 the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats 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 Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding 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