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The US President is not typically known for guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib 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 move against the American court system also garnered support from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing 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 phase where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement last week was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid social media criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen overseas.

“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 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 stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor 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 think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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