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The US President rarely accepts guidance, particularly from international figures who often seek to flatter and admire the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian methods used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media call last week was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid online attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several nations, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, 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 pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

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

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding 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 the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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