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Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, especially from international figures who often seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Maga figures, including an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media call last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights sending accused undocumented individuals to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid social media criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send troops into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in several nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the debate by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “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 judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

“All understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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