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

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement recently was one more in a long series of provocations and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during social media criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of threats and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, right after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding 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 instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly attack 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 emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently