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Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian methods employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online call last week was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

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, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level 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 alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss 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 strongmen overseas.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “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 targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s objectives, the expert said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently