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The US President is not typically known for advice, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president 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 amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native 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 American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during social media attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

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

Increasing Risk Data

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, 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 judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

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 provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power 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 ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate 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 global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted 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 gunman targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

On the government's aims, the expert said that “impeaching a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently