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

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent intervention occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call last week was just the latest in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations sending accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also made amid online criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, 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 political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

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

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of broad presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the debate by emphasizing their claim that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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