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The US President is not typically known for advice, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the White House to follow his example in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, such as an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using similar authoritarian methods employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online statement recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid online criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure 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 authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate 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 legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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