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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and admire the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's recent remarks occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media statement last week was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

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 administration's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and violent threats 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 GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term despite legal bans, Bukele’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 rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation 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 court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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