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Donald Trump is not typically known for guidance, especially from international figures who often seek to praise and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's recent intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media statement last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during social media attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's record of 630 threats.

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

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by strongmen 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 weaken the courts,” she said.

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

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

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“All knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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