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

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, such as an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's latest remarks occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian methods employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's online statement last week was one more in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid social media criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

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

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

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

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

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

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

“Everyone understands 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 those are both specialized police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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