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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, especially from international figures who often attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid online attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's record 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 intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, 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 calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

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

In 2021, right after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority 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, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

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

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently