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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, especially from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian methods employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement last week was one more in a long series of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid social media attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send troops into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

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

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the threats are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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