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The US President rarely accepts counsel, especially from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

“The government is looking around 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.

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal 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 decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently