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The US President is not typically known for counsel, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and admire 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 “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's online call recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid online criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Specialists say that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently