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The US President is not typically known for advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media statement recently was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid social media criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the threats are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

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

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“All knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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