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Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's latest intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media call last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid social media attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of 630 threats.

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

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging 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 calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

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

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over 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.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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