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The US President is not typically known for counsel, particularly from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's recent remarks occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian tactics used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during social media criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

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

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

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

In 2021, right after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked 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 efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

“The government is observing at these achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the government's aims, the expert said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently