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The US President rarely accepts advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

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

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's recent 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 comparable strong-arm methods employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to halt removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” 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 first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the debate by repeating 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 people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the government's aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently