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The US President does not usually take guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm methods employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media call recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

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

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation 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 fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored 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 the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

“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 examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's objectives, the expert said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently