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Donald Trump does not usually take advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

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

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, including an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's recent remarks occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian methods used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media call last week was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during online criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred 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 instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts 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 Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in multiple countries, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the debate by repeating their claim that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

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

Administration Aims

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