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Donald Trump does not usually take counsel, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the president's team is using comparable strong-arm methods employed by rulers in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's social media call last week was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to halt removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during online criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president personally in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in recent years in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, made way for new appointees selected by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

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

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

Pointing to instances such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and the Russian, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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