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The US President is not typically known for guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm tactics used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media call last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid online attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the models 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 laws that would weaken the courts,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats 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 recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“All understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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