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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, particularly from international figures who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

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

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm tactics used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media call last week was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid social media attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting 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 impeded the administration's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing 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 intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's high of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts state that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

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

In several years ago, immediately after starting a second term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees selected by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

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

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the debate by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts 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.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

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

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's aims, the expert said that “impeaching a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently