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The US President does not usually take counsel, especially from international figures who frequently seek to praise and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent remarks occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian tactics used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media call last week was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid online criticism on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions blocking Trump from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been eager to dispatch troops into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine 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: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation 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

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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