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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a different approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, including an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's recent remarks occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using similar authoritarian tactics used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online call recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights sending accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued amid online attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had issued injunctions preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

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

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in several nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

“The administration is looking around at these achievements and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s persistent assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the debate by emphasizing 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 authority of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both specialized law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s objectives, the expert said that “removing a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently