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The US President rarely accepts counsel, particularly from international figures who often attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm methods used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call recently was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid social media criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in California. The president has been eager to send troops into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, 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. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove 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 the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had learned from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad executive power, she added: “They directly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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