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The US President rarely accepts guidance, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian tactics used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's online call last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

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

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president'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, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted 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 judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting the judge.

“All understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

On the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently