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

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, including an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's latest remarks occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during social media criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton'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 the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal 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.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

“The administration is looking around at these successes and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would weaken the courts,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy 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 sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs 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 highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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