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Donald Trump rarely accepts guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who often attempt to praise and compliment the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by calling on the White House to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for the president to move against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent intervention come at a time 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 tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online call last week was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid online criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, peaceful demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways impeded the administration's policy goals. Before resuming office recently, the president urged his followers against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with threats and harassment.

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

Rising Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the threats are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in recent years in multiple nations, including by Bukele.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and five judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the debate by emphasizing their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

On the government's aims, the expert said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently