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The US President is not typically known for advice, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to praise and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary 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 calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online call last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during social media attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

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

In 2021, right after starting a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the debate by emphasizing their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

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

“All knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s objectives, the expert said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently