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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, especially from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and admire the American leader.

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

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement last week was just the latest in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

According to information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken 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 Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the debate by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

On the administration’s aims, the expert said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently