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The US President rarely accepts counsel, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

However, 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.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, including an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's latest intervention occur of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian methods used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media call recently was one more in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a spring claim that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid social media attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to send soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, Bondi, 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. Before resuming office this year, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of risks and coercion in the period since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Risk Data

Based on data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of over six hundred threats.

The threats are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the threats 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 claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and allies align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump opposes.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the White House 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 undermine the judiciary,” she said.

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, 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 reframe the discussion by emphasizing their claim that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Administration Aims

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