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Donald Trump does not usually take advice, especially from international figures who often seek to flatter and compliment the US president.

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

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered backing from Maga figures, such as an social media message by one-time close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that Bukele's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm tactics used by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's online call last week was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, such as a spring claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop removal operations transporting suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during online criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

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

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were 562 threats to 395 federal judges, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

Experts say that the intimidation are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the watchdog group 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 noted “a 54% rise in calls for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

That march towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in several nations, including by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

“The administration is looking around 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 Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to redefine the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant targeting Salas.

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

“US justices are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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