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The US President does not usually take advice, especially from foreign leaders who often seek to praise and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian tactics used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid online attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

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

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

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

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad executive power, she added: “They openly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding 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.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“All understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

On 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