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Donald Trump is not typically known for guidance, especially from international figures who often attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

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

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online statement recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to halt removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid social media attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

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

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

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

In 2021, right after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

“The government is observing 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.

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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