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The US President does not usually take counsel, particularly from international figures who often attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian methods used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement last week was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid social media attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the debate by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are guarded 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 leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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