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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, especially from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

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

The call for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm tactics used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call recently was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during online criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

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

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science 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 warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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