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Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and admire the American leader.

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

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call recently was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid online criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

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

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples 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 laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection 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 think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting Salas.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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