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Donald Trump rarely accepts counsel, especially from foreign leaders who often attempt to flatter and compliment the American leader.

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

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, including an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using similar strong-arm tactics used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media statement recently was just the latest in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop deportation flights sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made amid online criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, 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. Before returning to power recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top 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 fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Specialists state that the threats are a result 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 White House allies and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

“The administration is looking around at these successes and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

On the administration’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