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

But, El Salvador's strongman president Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Judicial Independence

Experts say that the leader's recent intervention occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar authoritarian methods employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement last week was one more in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt deportation flights transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during online criticism on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office this year, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a heightened climate of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the intimidation are a product of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and several justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad executive power, she added: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

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