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The US President rarely accepts advice, particularly from international figures who often seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

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

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, including an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media call last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to halt removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid social media attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

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 395 US justices, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

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

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, 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 wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’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