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The US President rarely accepts advice, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm tactics used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call last week was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid social media attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

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

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the debate 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: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer 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 knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices 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 Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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