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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and admire the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement last week was one more in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during online criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways 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 inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts state 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 comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in several countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, right after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

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

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad executive power, she added: “They directly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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