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The US President does not usually take counsel, especially from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, including an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using similar authoritarian methods employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online statement last week was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during online attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

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

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple countries, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the debate by repeating their argument 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 capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” 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 murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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