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Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, especially from international figures who often attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm methods employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media statement recently was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during social media attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

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

In several years ago, right after starting a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

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

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard 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 decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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