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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, especially from foreign leaders who often seek to praise and admire the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the US judiciary also garnered support from Maga figures, including an social media message by former close Trump ally the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that Bukele's latest intervention occur of unprecedented threats to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a phase where the president's team is employing comparable strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine democratic accountability.

The president's social media call recently was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and his mockery of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Oregon Justice

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued amid social media attacks on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump personally in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions blocking the administration from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the leader has described as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, Trump urged his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with intimidation and harassment.

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

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Analysis on Root Causes

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase 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 co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the courts is another move in the administration's march towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in multiple countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after commencing a second term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five judges on the supreme court. The justices, who had angered him by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements selected by the leader.

The action echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges recently; and efforts at similar moves in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the president to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the models set by strongmen abroad.

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

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless executive power, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by repeating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the discussion by repeating their argument that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

The professor said: “Judges' 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 think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and the Russian, and has warned about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “pizza doxxings” this year, 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 assailant targeting Salas.

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

“Federal judges are guarded by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated police units that sit structurally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Administration Aims

On the administration’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