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

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also garnered support from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm methods employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement last week was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid social media attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president 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 taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by repeating their argument that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the government's aims, the expert said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently