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The US President does not usually take guidance, particularly from international figures who often seek to praise and admire the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy 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 garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's recent remarks occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's online call last week was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during social media criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “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 founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, such as 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 several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has greater authority 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 ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers 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 a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the government's aims, Scheppele said that “removing a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently