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Donald Trump is not typically known for guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

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

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian methods employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call last week was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during social media attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats 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 cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise 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 the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts 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

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently