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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, particularly from international figures who often seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

The president's online statement recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during online criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to send troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

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 Risk Data

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in recent years in multiple countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“All understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded 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 spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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