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The US President does not usually take guidance, particularly from international figures who often seek to praise and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's recent intervention occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid online criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

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

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a result of the language 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 aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

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

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

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

“They persist in 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.”

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

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating dangers 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 recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“All understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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