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The US President is not typically known for advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and admire the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also garnered support from Trump allies, including an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian tactics used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's online call last week was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop deportation flights transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid online criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against 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 presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration 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 laws that would weaken the courts,” she said.

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by stating over and over 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.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity 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 judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

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

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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