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

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, including an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian tactics used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to halt deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid online criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

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

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

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

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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