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The US President does not usually take counsel, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online statement last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' 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 hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

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

Government Goals

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