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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm methods used by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, Hungary, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's online call last week was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights sending suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid social media attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send troops into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data collected by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

“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 examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

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

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

“US justices are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently