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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

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

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian methods employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media call last week was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during online attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Risk Data

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the debate by repeating their claim that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

On the government's aims, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently