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The US President is not typically known for guidance, particularly from international figures who often seek to praise and admire the US president.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

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

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods employed by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online call last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid online attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to send troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In 2021, right after commencing a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor'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 government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate 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 public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of weakening 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

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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