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The US President does not usually take guidance, particularly from international figures who often seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, such as an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian methods employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely 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 Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

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 claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

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

In 2021, right after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“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 dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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