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The US President is not typically known for guidance, especially from international figures who frequently seek to praise and admire the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

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

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian tactics used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media call last week was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid online attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the intimidation are a product 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 allies align with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, 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 documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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