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Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, including an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable strong-arm methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's online statement last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid online criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

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

“The administration is observing at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would weaken the courts,” she said.

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection 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 spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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