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The US President is not typically known for guidance, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian tactics used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call last week was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during social media attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The threats 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, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

“The government is observing at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” 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 judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

On the government's aims, the expert said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently