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Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, especially from foreign leaders who often seek to flatter and admire the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, including an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that the leader's latest remarks occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing comparable strong-arm methods employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online call last week was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during social media attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; 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 seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about 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 highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

“All understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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