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The US President rarely accepts advice, particularly from international figures who often seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

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

The call for the president to move against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that Bukele's recent remarks occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing comparable strong-arm methods employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media call recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made during social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to send troops into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been common in recent years in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

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

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by strongmen abroad.

“The government is observing at these successes and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard 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 hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats 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 Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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