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Donald Trump does not usually take advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, including an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm tactics used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

The president's online call last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during online criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of threats and coercion in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

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 alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after starting a second term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad executive power, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Judges' 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 judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

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

Government Goals

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