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The US President rarely accepts guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, including an social media message by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian methods employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement recently was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during online criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models 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 laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by repeating their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’s aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently