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The US President does not usually take counsel, especially from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement recently was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during online criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

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

Rising Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

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

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

“The government is observing at these successes and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the debate by repeating their argument that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence 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.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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