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The US President is not typically known for advice, particularly from international figures who often attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media call recently was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during social media criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the period 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 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

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

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians 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 undermine the courts,” she said.

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by repeating their argument that the executive 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 capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

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

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “removing a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently