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The US President is not typically known for counsel, particularly from international figures who often attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's recent remarks occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian tactics used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media call last week was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during online criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to send troops into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

“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 weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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