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The US President does not usually take guidance, particularly from international figures who frequently attempt to praise and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media call recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights sending accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

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

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

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

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

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

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

“The government is looking around at these successes and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any legislation that would weaken the courts,” she said.

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

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

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán 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 pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s aims, the expert said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently