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The US President is not typically known for counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm methods employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media call recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop removal operations sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during social media attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

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

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

“The government is observing at these successes and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any legislation that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the debate by emphasizing their claim that the executive 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 ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions 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 Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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