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The US President is not typically known for advice, especially from international figures who often attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during online criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Risk Data

According to information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

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

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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