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Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable strong-arm tactics used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during social media criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

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

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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