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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to praise and admire the US president.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has followed a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to follow his example in removing what he terms “dishonest judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the American court system also garnered support from Maga figures, including an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has previously boosted the Salvadoran's calls to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Risks to Judicial Independence

Analysts say that the leader's recent intervention occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is using comparable authoritarian methods used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, the European state, India, and Bukele's own El Salvador to weaken democratic accountability.

Bukele's online call last week was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has made against the US's legal system, such as a March assertion that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his country's harsh correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during online attacks on the state's federal judge Judge Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and the president personally in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders preventing the administration from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send troops into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on small, non-violent demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Attacking Judges

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased climate of threats and intimidation in the months since he returned to the presidency.

Rising Risk Data

According to information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred incidents to 395 federal judges, giving rise to 805 investigations. This year has already surpassed 2022, and last year, and is likely to top 2023's record of over six hundred reported incidents.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Information by the university's research project indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Analysis on Root Causes

Specialists say that the intimidation are a result of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a detailed report claiming that “malicious and highly irresponsible statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It recorded “a fifty-four percent increase in demands for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from the first two months 2025, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

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

Global Strongman Tactics

That march towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In several years ago, immediately after starting a second term despite legal bans, Bukele’s allies in congress voted to remove the country’s attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by ruling against pandemic policies, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The move echoed Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of the nation's judiciary in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and efforts at similar moves in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Weakening Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to weaken court autonomy in a structure that offers no easy way for the executive to dismiss judges the administration disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has researched authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the models set by strongmen overseas.

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

Pointing to examples such as the advisor's persistent assertions of nearly limitless executive power, she added: “They directly attack the courts by repeating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by repeating their argument that the president has greater authority than this judicial branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority of their capacity to make those decisions. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the sitting government, which is, of course, highly concerning for judicial review and for democracy.”

Intimidation Tactics

Kim Lane Scheppele, academic of sociology and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of so-called “pizza doxxings” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as a name, the son of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman aiming at the judge.

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are protected by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And the former AG has been leading the attacks on justices.”

Government Goals

Regarding the administration’s objectives, 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