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The US President rarely accepts advice, especially from international figures who often attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the Trump administration 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 backing from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent intervention occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

According to information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating 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 January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s objectives, the expert said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently