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The US President does not usually take guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian tactics used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send troops into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

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 policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative 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 the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly 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 emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

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

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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