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The US President rarely accepts guidance, particularly from international figures who often attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during social media criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to 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, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

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

Undermining Judicial Independence

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 opposes.

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

“The administration is observing at these successes and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any legislation that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy 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 sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the government's aims, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently