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The US President does not usually take counsel, especially from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's latest remarks 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 employing comparable authoritarian methods employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement last week was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made during online criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in several nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats 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 remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models 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.

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

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

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

Administration Aims

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