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The US President rarely accepts advice, especially from international figures who often seek to flatter and admire the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian tactics used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call recently was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during online attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

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 in other ways impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

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

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

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 claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

“The government is observing at these successes and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by emphasizing their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' 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 hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

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

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the government's objectives, the expert said that “impeaching a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently