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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian methods used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid social media attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, 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 national level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming 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 violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

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

In 2021, right after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power 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 ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently