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

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

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also received support from Maga figures, including an social media message by former supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts note that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using comparable authoritarian tactics used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to weaken democratic accountability.

The president's social media statement recently was just the latest in a long series of provocations and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to halt removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during online criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, former AG Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump personally in a recent media briefing.

Immergut had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban homeland security facility.

Record of Targeting Justices

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways impeded the government's political agenda. Before returning to power recently, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Information by Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Expert Analysis on Threat Sources

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

In May, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s warnings against judges have certainly fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in Trump’s march towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In several years ago, right after starting a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's remodeling of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges recently; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Judicial Independence

Analysts explain that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in reframe the debate by emphasizing their argument that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Justices' 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 hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

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

She pointed to a series of termed “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 murdered at the judge’s home in 2020 by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the federal police. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that sit structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On the government's aims, the expert said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently