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The US President is not typically known for counsel, especially from international figures who often attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in impeaching what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to move against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, such as an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's recent remarks occur of unmatched threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is employing comparable authoritarian methods used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

Bukele's online statement recently was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has made against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued during social media criticism on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, the president directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a increased climate of threats and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to top the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

Specialists state that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's warnings against judges have certainly fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

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

In several years ago, immediately after starting a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by strongmen overseas.

“The administration is observing at these successes and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any legislation that would undermine the courts,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's persistent claims of broad executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is people’s belief in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

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

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

“US justices are protected by the Secret Service and the federal police. And these are specialized police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’s objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently