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The US President does not usually take counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

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

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's recent remarks occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online statement last week was just the latest in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during social media attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

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 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State 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 observing 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.

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly 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 debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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