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The US President does not usually take counsel, particularly from international figures who often seek to praise and compliment the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing what he terms “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered support from Maga figures, including an X post by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's recent remarks come at a time of unmatched threats to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar authoritarian tactics used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own the Central American country to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's online call recently was one more in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's order to halt deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during online attacks on Oregon justice Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, attorney general Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the national guard, initially in the state then in California. Trump has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “war-ravaged” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to resuming office this year, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, police departments, and judges themselves have highlighted a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Risk Data

According to data gathered by the federal agency, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is likely to exceed 2023's record of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not just happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 cases of intimidation, harassment, stalking, or violence directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists say that the threats are a result of the language coming from top government officials.

In May, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and supporters align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across digital networks from the first two months of this year, the first full month of Trump’s administration.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have certainly driven digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

That march towards autocracy has been well-trodden in the past decade in several nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, right after starting a second term despite legal bans, the president's allies in congress voted to dismiss the country’s top prosecutor and five judges on the supreme court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees selected by the leader.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by strongmen overseas.

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

Citing examples such as Miller’s relentless assertions of broad executive power, she added: “They directly attack the courts by repeating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to redefine the debate by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

The professor said: “Judges' sole safeguard is people’s belief in the legitimacy of their ability to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

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

She pointed to a wave of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the residence in several years ago by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” the professor said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the criticism on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

Regarding the government's aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently