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The US President does not usually take advice, particularly from international figures who frequently attempt to praise and admire the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered support from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Experts say that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online statement recently was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

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

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

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

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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