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Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to praise and admire the US president.

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

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele'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 Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement last week was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid social media attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

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

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned 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 undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by emphasizing their claim that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

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

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently