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The US President is not typically known for guidance, particularly from international figures who often attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's latest intervention occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm methods used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid social media criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple countries, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

“The administration is observing at these successes and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the government's aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently