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The US President rarely accepts guidance, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's recent remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online call recently was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

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

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate 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 social science and international affairs 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 wave of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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