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The US President does not usually take guidance, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

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

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's recent intervention occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm methods used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's online call last week was just the latest in a long series of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

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

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the debate by emphasizing 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 people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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