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The US President does not usually take counsel, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call last week was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during social media criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

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

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

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

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’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.

Weakening Judicial Independence

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

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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