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The US President does not usually take guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent remarks occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media call last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Risk Data

According to information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

“The administration is looking around at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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