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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and admire the US president.

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

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using similar strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to halt deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during online criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Risk Data

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's record of over six hundred 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 fifty-nine cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, 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 senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane 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 Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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