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The US President does not usually take advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent intervention occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using similar strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media call last week was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid social media attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice 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 “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

“All knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

Regarding the government's aims, the expert said that “impeaching a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently