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Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to praise and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by urging 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 oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

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

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

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

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad executive power, she added: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the debate by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

On the government's objectives, the expert said that “impeaching a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently