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

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian methods used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online statement last week was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during social media criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation 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.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’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