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Donald Trump is not typically known for counsel, particularly from international figures who often attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's strongman president Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the White House to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for the president to move against the US judiciary also received support from Maga figures, including an social media message by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past amplified Bukele's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Experts note that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods employed by rulers in countries such as Türkiye, the European state, India, and Bukele's own 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 American judiciary, including a March claim that the US was “facing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to halt removal operations transporting accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid online criticism on Oregon federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and the president himself in a latest press gaggle.

The judge had ordered injunctions preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, first in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's homeland security facility.

History of Targeting Justices

The advisor, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the administration's policy goals. Before returning to power recently, Trump urged his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

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

Rising Threat Statistics

Based on data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the third quarter, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, leading to 805 investigations. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's high of 630 reported incidents.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, surveillance, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Analysis on Threat Sources

Specialists state that the threats are a result of the rhetoric coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and highly irresponsible 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 physical intimidation 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 definitely driven digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is another move in Trump’s advance towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’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 pandemic policies, made way for replacements selected by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and Poland.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to undermine judicial independence in a structure that offers no easy way for the president to remove judges the administration opposes.

Leonard, an academic at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in democracies, said the White House had taken cues from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

“The administration is observing 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.

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad executive power, she noted: “They directly criticize the courts by stating over and over that it is not a co-equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine 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: “Judges' only protection is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening 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 the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the child of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“Everyone 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 those are both specialized law enforcement that sit institutionally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on federal judges.”

Government Goals

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