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The US President rarely accepts counsel, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

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

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's latest intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid online attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands 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 co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by repeating their claim that the executive has greater authority 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 decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding 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

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian 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 customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units 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, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently