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The US President does not usually take guidance, especially from international figures who often attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's latest remarks occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using similar strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media call recently was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled 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 illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during online attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary 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 Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

“The government is looking around at these successes 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 the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in 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' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently