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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different approach by calling on the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm methods employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations 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 court's order to halt deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during online criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in recent years in multiple countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers 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 weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” 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 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

“All understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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