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Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, especially from international figures who often attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, including an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using similar strong-arm methods used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's online call recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during social media attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to resuming office this year, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's high of over six hundred 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 instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in several countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults 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 associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

“The government is observing at these achievements 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 nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, 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 Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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