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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

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

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm methods employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid online criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send troops into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” 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 history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

“The government is looking around at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

Regarding 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