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The US President does not usually take counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by calling on the White House to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using similar authoritarian methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call recently was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during online attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send troops into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government'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 intimidation and abuse.

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

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system 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 Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

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

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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