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The US President is not typically known for guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to praise and admire the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, including an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online statement recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to halt removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by Bukele.

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

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

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

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries 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 the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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