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The US President rarely accepts counsel, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

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

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, including an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian methods employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's online statement recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during online attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to resuming office this year, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

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

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted 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 killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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