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The US President does not usually take counsel, particularly from international figures who often attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during online criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to resuming office this year, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a result of the language 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 allies align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

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

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

“The government is observing at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize 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 repeating their argument that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s aims, the expert said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently