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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, especially from international figures who often attempt to praise and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say 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 strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media statement recently 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 judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over 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 coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; 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 threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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