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The US President does not usually take counsel, especially from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian methods employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send troops into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

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

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive 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 first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

“The government is looking around at these successes and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

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

She pointed to a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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