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The US President is not typically known for guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's recent remarks occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using similar strong-arm tactics used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid social media attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send troops into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists 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 “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The action 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 Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

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

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

Regarding 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