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Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian tactics used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media statement recently was just the latest in a long series 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 ruling to halt removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during online attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, 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 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the threats are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

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

In several years ago, immediately after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their claim that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding 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 the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, 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 judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently