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The US President rarely accepts advice, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and admire the US president.

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

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's latest remarks occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during online criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards autocracy 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 legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the debate by repeating their claim that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science 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 escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently