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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, including an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian tactics used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid social media criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

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

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

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

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

“The administration is observing at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, 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 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's aims, the expert said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently