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Donald Trump rarely accepts counsel, especially from international figures who frequently seek to praise and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's recent intervention occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during social media criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 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 fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, right after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard 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 think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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