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Donald Trump does not usually take advice, especially from international figures who often seek to praise and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent intervention occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's online call recently was one more in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid online criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

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

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions 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 repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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