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The US President rarely accepts counsel, particularly from international figures who frequently seek to flatter and compliment the American leader.

However, the Central American nation's strongman president Bukele has adopted a different strategy by urging the Trump administration to emulate his actions in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the American court system also garnered backing from Trump allies, such as an social media message by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Risks to Court Autonomy

Experts say that Bukele's recent intervention come at a time of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a period where the Trump administration is using similar strong-arm tactics used by rulers in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

The president's social media statement recently was just the latest in a string of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the US's legal system, including a March claim that the US was “experiencing a judicial coup,” and ridicule of a court's ruling to stop deportation flights sending accused illegal immigrants to his country's harsh prison system.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's impeachment call was also issued during online attacks on Oregon federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Miller, attorney general Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

Immergut had issued restraining orders blocking Trump from mobilizing the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into the city, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and Musk have a long record of attacking judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or in other ways hindered the government's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his followers against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then inundated with intimidation and abuse.

Monitoring groups, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of threats and coercion in the months since he re-entered the White House.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data gathered by the US Marshals Service, in the current year through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to 395 federal judges, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and 2024, and is on track to exceed the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative indicates that there have been at least 59 instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks committed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Expert Insights on Threat Sources

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

In spring, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from White House allies and allies align with escalating aggressive posts on online platforms.” It recorded “a 54% rise in calls for removal and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the first full month of the president's term.”

Beirich, the founder of GPAHE, said: “Trump’s threats against judges have definitely driven online vitriol at judges and calls for impeachment. Attacking the judiciary is another move in the administration's march towards authoritarianism.”

International Authoritarian Playbook

This progression towards authoritarianism has been common in the past decade in multiple nations, such as by Bukele.

In 2021, right after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, the president's parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's attorney general and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for new appointees hand picked by the leader.

The move echoed the Hungarian leader's overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; the Turkish president's judicial purges in 2019; and efforts at similar moves 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 court autonomy in a structure that provides no simple method for the executive to dismiss judges Trump disapproves of.

Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had learned from the examples set by strongmen abroad.

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

Citing examples such as the advisor's relentless assertions of broad presidential authority, she noted: “They openly attack the judiciary by stating repeatedly that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in reframe the debate by emphasizing their argument that the executive has more power than this other co-equal branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those decisions. Individual threats on top of eroding institutional legitimacy may make judges think twice 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 global studies at Princeton University, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of the Hungarian and the Russian, and has spoken out about rising threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a series of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman targeting Salas.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. 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 law enforcement that are placed institutionally inside the federal agency. And Pam Bondi has been leading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

On the government's aims, Scheppele said that “impeaching a US justice is highly not going to happen because it’s very difficult to do. {Right now|Currently