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Donald Trump rarely accepts counsel, especially from international figures who often seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

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

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, including an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's recent intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian tactics used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online call recently was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during social media attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

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 violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple nations, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

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

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the debate by repeating their claim that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight 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 likes of Orbán 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 unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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