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The US President is not typically known for counsel, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to praise and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, including an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online statement last week was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during online criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to send troops into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

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

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts state that the intimidation are a result 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 allies coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

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

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan 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 strongmen abroad.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

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

She highlighted 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 residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

On the government's aims, Scheppele said that “removing a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently