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The US President does not usually take advice, particularly from international figures who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for the president to take action against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, such as an X post by former supporter the billionaire, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the president's team is employing similar strong-arm methods employed by leaders in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's online statement recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his country's brutal prison system.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during online attacks on Oregon justice Karin Immergut by White House aide Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. The president has been eager to send soldiers into the city, which the leader has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent protests outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's policy goals. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased climate of risks and coercion in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the national level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, targeting, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

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

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a 54% rise in demands for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and calls for ouster. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

International Authoritarian Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in several countries, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after starting a new term despite constitutional prohibitions, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and several judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by strongmen abroad.

“The government is looking around at these achievements and setbacks. They know they’re not going to be able to pass any laws that would weaken the courts,” she said.

Citing examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad executive power, she added: “They openly criticize the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They continue to reframe the debate by emphasizing their claim that the executive has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the authority of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

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

Government Goals

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