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The US President rarely accepts advice, particularly from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct approach by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's recent intervention occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm tactics employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's social media statement recently was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to halt deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid social media attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power this year, the president urged his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information gathered by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state 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 detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

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

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

“The government is looking around 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.

Citing instances such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a assailant targeting Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that are placed structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

Regarding the government's aims, the expert said that “removing a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently