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The US President rarely accepts guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable strong-arm tactics used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's online call last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid online attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to send troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

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 policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts state that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

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

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

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

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this judicial 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 decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” 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” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's aims, the expert said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently