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The US President is not typically known for guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using similar strong-arm tactics used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during online criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

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

In 2021, right after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts 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.”

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 Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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