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The US President rarely accepts counsel, especially from international figures who often seek to praise and admire the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's online call recently was one more in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during social media attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests 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 Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

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

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

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues 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 laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the debate by repeating their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief 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, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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