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The US President is not typically known for counsel, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm tactics used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online statement last week was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

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

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen 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 undermine the courts,” she said.

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their argument that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority 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, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “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 killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

“All understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the government's objectives, the expert said that “removing a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently