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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, especially from foreign leaders who often seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm tactics used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's online call recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during online attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions blocking 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 president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a result 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 highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

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

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

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

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the debate by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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