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Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian methods used by rulers in countries such as Turkey, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online call last week was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid social media attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered restraining orders preventing Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban homeland security facility.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Before resuming office this year, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

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

Rising Risk Data

Based on data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

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

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with escalating aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “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.”

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

International Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in multiple countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after starting a second term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by repeating over and over 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' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Administration Aims

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