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The US President does not usually take counsel, especially from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media statement recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid online criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

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

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple countries, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

“The administration is looking around at these achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any laws that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the debate by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

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

Intimidation Tactics

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

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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