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Donald Trump rarely accepts counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's latest remarks occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian methods employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement last week was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations sending accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid social media criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been common in recent years in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

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

“They persist in reframe the debate by repeating their argument that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments 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 sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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