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Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

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

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using similar authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online call last week was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including 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 illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid social media criticism on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered 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 over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several nations, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

“The administration is observing at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any legislation that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the debate 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: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. 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, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently