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Donald Trump does not usually take advice, especially from international figures who often seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

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

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, including an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using similar authoritarian methods employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online call last week was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations 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 transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid online attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, the president urged his supporters 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 pointed to a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

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

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

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 second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

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

“The administration is looking around at these achievements 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 assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the debate by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

On the administration’s objectives, the expert said that “impeaching a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently