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Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, especially from international figures who often seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the White House to follow his example in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, including an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian methods employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid social media attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On the government's objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently