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Donald Trump rarely accepts counsel, especially from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to halt removal operations sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during online attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

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

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority 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 sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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