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Donald Trump is not typically known for guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using similar authoritarian tactics used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement recently was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Risk Data

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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