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The US President does not usually take counsel, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm tactics used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media call last week was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid online attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send troops into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the period since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

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

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“All understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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