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The US President rarely accepts counsel, especially from international figures who often seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid online attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

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 instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, 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 pass any legislation that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by repeating 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 greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, 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 judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

On the government's aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently