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Donald Trump does not usually take advice, especially from foreign leaders who often seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian methods used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's online call recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to halt removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during online attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to send troops into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk 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 returning to power this year, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

“The administration is looking around at these achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any legislation that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

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

“They continue to reframe the debate by emphasizing their claim 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 ability to make those rulings. 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, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

On the government's objectives, the expert said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently