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Donald Trump is not typically known for guidance, especially from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's recent intervention occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's online statement last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid social media criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, Trump 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 pointed to a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

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

Global Authoritarian Playbook

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

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the debate by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s objectives, the expert said that “impeaching a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently