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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, including an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm tactics used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media call last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation 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 alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “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 the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings 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.”

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in several nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had taken cues 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 laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. 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 court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

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

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks 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