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

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

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously boosted Bukele's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's latest remarks occur of unmatched dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the US, and during a period where the president's team is using similar authoritarian methods used by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and Bukele's own El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

The president's online call recently was one more in a long series of provocations and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a spring claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a federal judge's order to stop deportation flights transporting suspected illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Attacks on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also issued during online criticism on the state's justice Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued injunctions preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, first in the state then in California. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, non-violent demonstrations outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

Miller, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of criticizing judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the government's political agenda. Before returning to power this year, Trump directed his supporters against judges presiding over his civil and criminal trials, who were then inundated with intimidation and harassment.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and judges themselves have pointed to a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information collected by the federal agency, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, leading to 805 inquiries. 2025 has already eclipsed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to exceed the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, targeting, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Expert Insights on Root Causes

Experts say that the threats are a product of the language coming from senior administration figures.

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “harmful and reckless statements from White House allies and supporters coincide with rising violent posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% rise in demands for removal and physical intimidation against judges across social media platforms from the first two months 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and demands for impeachment. Targeting the courts is one more step in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been well-trodden in recent years in several countries, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and several judges on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements selected by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at comparable actions in Israel and Poland.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts explain that the threats and verbal assaults in the US can be viewed as attempts to weaken judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump disapproves of.

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

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

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

“They persist in redefine the debate by emphasizing 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 rulings. Personal intimidation on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice about judgments that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for the political system.”

Intimidation Tactics

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at Princeton University, has written about the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was killed at the residence in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

“All knows what it means. ‘We know where you live. We’re coming for you,’” the professor said.

“US justices are guarded by the presidential protection and the federal police. And those are both dedicated police units that sit institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the attacks on federal judges.”

Government Goals

Regarding the government's objectives, the expert said that “impeaching a US justice is almost certainly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently