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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and admire the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, including an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian methods used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's online statement recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid online attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen abroad.

“The administration is looking around at these achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any legislation that would weaken the courts,” she said.

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently