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The US President does not usually take counsel, especially from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian tactics used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media call recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during online criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

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

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

“The government is observing 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 the advisor's relentless assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion 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: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

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

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the government's objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently