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Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, especially from international figures who often attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

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

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, 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 Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's recent remarks occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian tactics used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call last week was just the latest in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during social media criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to send troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several nations, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, 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 the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen abroad.

“The government is observing at these successes and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any legislation that would weaken the courts,” she said.

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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