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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's latest intervention occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian methods used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online call last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to halt removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made during social media attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

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

“The government is looking around at these achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any laws that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology 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 warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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