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The US President rarely accepts counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's online statement last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

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

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen overseas.

“The administration is looking around at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any legislation that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered 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,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the government's objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently