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The US President rarely accepts advice, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to praise and compliment the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, such as an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian methods employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's online call last week was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Specialists say that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

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

Global Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening 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 remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

“The administration 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 instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight 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 such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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