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The US President is not typically known for counsel, especially from international figures who often attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's latest intervention occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian tactics used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's online call recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid social media criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently