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The US President does not usually take advice, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's latest remarks occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable strong-arm methods employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's online statement recently was one more in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid social media attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They directly attack 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 emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“All knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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