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The US President is not typically known for advice, especially from foreign leaders who often seek to praise and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, including an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's latest remarks come at a time 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 used by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's online call recently was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's impeachment call was also issued during online attacks on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to resuming office this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or violence committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in recent years in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They directly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

The professor said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. 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 democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor 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 the Russian, and has spoken out about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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