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The US President is not typically known for counsel, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

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

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian tactics used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media statement recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during online criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first 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 small, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, Trump directed 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 intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

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

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this other co-equal 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 rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, 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 highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's aims, 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