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Donald Trump rarely accepts counsel, especially from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

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

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system 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 oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian tactics used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media call 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 assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during online criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in California. The president has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

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

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts say that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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