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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call last week was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during online attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against 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 inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

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

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

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

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

“The administration is looking around at these successes and setbacks. 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 the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim 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 people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

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

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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