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The US President rarely accepts counsel, particularly from international figures who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a distinct approach by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for the president to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Maga figures, including an social media message by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's calls to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's latest intervention come at a time of unprecedented threats to judicial independence and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to weaken government oversight.

The president's social media statement recently was one more in a string of provocations and allegations he has made against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid online criticism on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent media briefing.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, Bondi, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's policy goals. Prior to returning to power recently, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and coercion in the period since he returned to the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to top 2023's high of 630 reported incidents.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts state that the threats are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent rise in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the initial period 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 calls for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Tactics

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term despite legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by the leader.

The move mirrored the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the Trump administration had learned from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They openly attack the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

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

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening institutional legitimacy may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting the judge.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's aims, the expert said that “impeaching a federal judge is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently