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The US President is not typically known for advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

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

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid online attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

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 local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls 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 threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly attack 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 greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

“All understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

On the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “impeaching a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently