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The US President rarely accepts counsel, especially from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and admire the US president.

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

The call for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers 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 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 call recently was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid social media criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to resuming office this year, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

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

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the government's objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently