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The US President rarely accepts counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent intervention occur of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's online statement last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations sending 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 Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and coercion in the period since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, right after starting a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the debate by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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