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

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's online statement last week was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid online criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

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

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts 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 Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

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

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently