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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, including an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm methods used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online statement last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid social media criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in multiple nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, right after starting a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats 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 judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

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

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

“All 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 Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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