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Donald Trump does not usually take advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

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

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, such as an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian methods employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's online call recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop deportation flights sending accused 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 White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

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

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% 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.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

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

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad executive power, she added: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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