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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media call recently was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group 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 recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless 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 persist in redefine 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.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice 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, professor of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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