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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, particularly from international figures who frequently attempt to praise and admire the US president.

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

The call for the president to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call recently was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's impeachment call was also made amid social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the executive has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both specialized police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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