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Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to praise and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's latest intervention occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid social media attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, 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 documented 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 highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges 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 spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s objectives, the expert said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently