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The US President rarely accepts advice, especially from international figures who often attempt to praise and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

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

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid social media attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in California. The president has been eager to send troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after starting a second term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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