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The US President rarely accepts counsel, especially from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and admire the US president.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent intervention occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is using similar strong-arm methods employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's online call last week was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has made against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's ruling to halt deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued amid social media attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Before resuming office this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least 59 instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a product of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from Trump administration members and supporters coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after starting a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the debate by repeating their claim that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

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

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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