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The US President is not typically known for advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and admire the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, including an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm methods employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented 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 pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently