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Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, including an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian methods used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid social media criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to send troops into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after starting a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

“The administration 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 courts,” she said.

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

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

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently