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The US President rarely accepts counsel, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, including an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian tactics used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media statement last week was one more in a string 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 court's ruling to halt removal operations sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid social media attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state 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 White House allies and allies coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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