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

However, 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 “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's latest intervention occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm methods employed by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's online statement recently was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during online criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts say that the threats are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

“The administration is looking around 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.

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by emphasizing their argument that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening 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 the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

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

Administration Aims

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