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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, especially from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, such as an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's recent intervention occur of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online statement last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid online attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Experts say that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and allies align with escalating violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the discussion by repeating their claim that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as Orbán and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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