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Donald Trump is not typically known for guidance, especially from foreign leaders who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

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

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, including an X post by former close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted Bukele's calls to impeach US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's recent remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable strong-arm methods used by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call last week was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid social media attacks on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways impeded the government's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

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

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts state that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from top government officials.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% increase in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Strongman Playbook

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

In 2021, right after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling 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 say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by authoritarians overseas.

“The government is observing 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 examples such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by emphasizing their argument that the president has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

Regarding the government's objectives, the expert said that “removing a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently