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Donald Trump does not usually take guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who frequently seek to praise and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that the leader's latest remarks occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian tactics employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

Bukele's online statement last week was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and ridicule of a court's order to stop removal operations sending suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made during online attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to send troops into the city, which the president has described as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's policy goals. Before returning to power this year, Trump urged his supporters against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred investigations. This year has already eclipsed 2022, and last year, and is on track to exceed the previous year's high of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

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

In May, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with rising violent posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

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

International Authoritarian Tactics

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

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The action mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

“The government is looking around at these successes and failures. They know they’re not going to be able to enact any laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

Leonard said: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about judgments that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

“All 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 specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

On the government'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