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Donald Trump does not usually take advice, particularly from international figures who often attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

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

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media statement recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid social media criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project 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 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is one more step in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned 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 enact any legislation that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. 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 structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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