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The US President does not usually take guidance, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's latest intervention occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media call last week was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during online attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the courts by repeating 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 argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “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 killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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