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The US President is not typically known for counsel, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to praise and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, including an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online call last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during online attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Risk Data

According to information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

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

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

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

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders 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 gunman targeting Salas.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

On the government's aims, the expert said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently