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The US President is not typically known for advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and admire the American leader.

However, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a different approach by urging the White House to emulate his actions in impeaching so-called “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to take action against the American court system also received backing from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's latest intervention occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing similar strong-arm tactics used by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and his native the Central American country to weaken government oversight.

The president's online call last week was just the latest in a string of taunts and claims he has leveled against the American judiciary, including a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to halt removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his country's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during social media criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Elon Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued injunctions blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, first in the state then in the West Coast state. The president has been eager to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

Miller, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked presidential directives or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Before resuming office recently, Trump directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and judges themselves have pointed to a heightened atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

According to information gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to nearly four hundred US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed 2023's high of over six hundred threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of intimidation, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Threat Sources

Experts 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 claiming that “harmful and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely fueled online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the courts is another move in the administration's advance towards authoritarianism.”

Global Authoritarian Tactics

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

In 2021, right after commencing a new term in the face of constitutional prohibitions, the president's allies in congress voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The action echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts say that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an academic at Illinois State University who has studied democratic decline in democracies, said the White House had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Citing instances such as the advisor's persistent assertions of broad executive power, she added: “They directly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They persist in redefine the debate 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: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their ability 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, highly concerning for court oversight and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unwanted pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in 2020 by a assailant aiming at Salas.

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

“Federal judges are protected by the presidential protection and the Marshals Service. And those are both dedicated law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

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