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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using similar authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media call last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid social media attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts say 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 “harmful and highly irresponsible 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 violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the debate by repeating their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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