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The US President rarely accepts guidance, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm tactics used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media statement last week was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid online attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The action 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 the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models 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 weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by repeating their argument that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“All understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor 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 leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On the government'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