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The US President rarely accepts counsel, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

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

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian methods used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call recently was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid online criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

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 detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

“The administration 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 examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion 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 authority of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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