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The US President is not typically known for guidance, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to praise and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a long series of provocations and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid online attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists state 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 detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

“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 undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the executive has greater authority 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 capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

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

She highlighted 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 son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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