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Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, especially from foreign leaders who often seek to praise and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian tactics used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online statement last week was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid social media attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

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

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

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

International Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

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

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” 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 “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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