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The US President rarely accepts guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

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

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using similar authoritarian methods employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call last week was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during online criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

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

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

“The government is observing at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly criticize 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 claim that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s aims, the expert said that “removing a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently