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The US President does not usually take guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

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

The call for the president to move against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media statement last week was just the latest in a long series of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

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

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the debate by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

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

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers 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 son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

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

Administration Aims

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