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

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing comparable strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during online criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, right after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine 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 authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats 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.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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