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The US President rarely accepts guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, including an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using similar authoritarian tactics used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online statement last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to halt removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

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

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

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

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 such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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