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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, especially from international figures who often seek to flatter and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's latest intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is using similar strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online call recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during online criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. The president has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in multiple countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

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

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the debate by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both specialized police units that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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