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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, especially from international figures who often seek to flatter and admire the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement last week was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during social media criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

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

In 2021, right after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

“The government is looking around at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would undermine the courts,” she said.

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

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

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both specialized 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, the expert said that “impeaching a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently