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The US President rarely accepts guidance, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

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

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online statement last week was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during online attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

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

Rising Risk Data

According to information gathered 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 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the threats are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

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

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

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

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the debate by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

On the government's objectives, the expert said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently