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The US President does not usually take guidance, especially from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, such as an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts note that Bukele's latest remarks occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm methods employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media statement last week was one more in a string of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during social media attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in California. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, the president urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

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

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

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

“They persist in redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances 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, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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