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

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also garnered support from Maga figures, including an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement recently was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during social media attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the debate by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

Regarding the government's objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently