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

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's latest intervention occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm tactics used by leaders 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 online call last week was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

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

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

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

Global Strongman Tactics

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

In 2021, right after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

“The government is looking around at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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