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The US President does not usually take counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media statement recently was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

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

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen abroad.

“The administration is looking around at these successes and setbacks. 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 Miller’s persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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