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Donald Trump rarely accepts advice, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and admire the US president.

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

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call recently was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during online attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in California. The president has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation 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: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

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

In 2021, right after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the debate by emphasizing their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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