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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, particularly from international figures who often attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the White House to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent intervention occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm tactics used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement recently was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid online criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

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

Rising Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats 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 intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

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

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

“The government 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 examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the debate by repeating their claim that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, 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 pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s objectives, the expert said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently