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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's online statement recently was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during social media criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data 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 more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine 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.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation 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 judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

On the government's objectives, the expert said that “impeaching a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently