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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, particularly from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

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

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using similar strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

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

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several nations, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the debate by emphasizing their claim that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” 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 residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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