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Donald Trump rarely accepts counsel, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent intervention occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media call last week was one more in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

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

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

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

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models 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 legislation that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently