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The US President does not usually take counsel, especially from international figures who often attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's latest remarks occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian tactics used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

The president's online call recently was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, 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 rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in several nations, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

“The administration is looking around at these successes and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any laws that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’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