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Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

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

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent remarks occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm tactics used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's online statement recently was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid online criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

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

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the intimidation 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 “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment 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 founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples 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 judiciary,” she said.

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

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's aims, the expert said that “impeaching a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently