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The US President does not usually take guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's latest intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian tactics used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's online statement last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during online attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

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

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

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

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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