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Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, such as an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm tactics used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call recently was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

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, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of 630 threats.

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

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

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

“The government is observing 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 relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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