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Donald Trump rarely accepts counsel, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to praise and compliment the US president.

But, the Central American nation's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has followed a different strategy by calling on the White House to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

The call for Trump to move against the US judiciary also received backing from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time supporter the billionaire, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to impeach US judges.

Unprecedented Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's latest remarks occur of unprecedented dangers to court autonomy and specific justices in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian methods employed by leaders in nations such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online statement last week was one more in a long series of taunts and allegations he has leveled against the American judiciary, such as a March claim that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's order to stop removal operations sending suspected undocumented individuals to his country's harsh prison system.

Attacks on Federal Judge

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also made during social media attacks on the state's justice Judge Immergut by White House aide Miller, former AG Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a recent press gaggle.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing Trump from deploying the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. The president has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the president has described as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

Record of Targeting Judges

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against presidential directives or in other ways hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, the president urged his supporters against judges overseeing his civil and criminal trials, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Watchdog organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the justices have pointed to a increased atmosphere of threats and intimidation in the period since he returned to the White House.

Rising Risk Data

Based on information collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to 805 inquiries. This year has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is on track to top 2023's high of 630 threats.

The threats are not only happening at the federal level. Data from Princeton's research project shows that there have been at least fifty-nine cases of threats, harassment, stalking, or physical attacks directed against judges on the state and municipal levels in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

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

In May, 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 coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from January to February of this year, the initial period of Trump’s administration.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the organization, said: “The president's threats against judges have certainly driven online vitriol at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Tactics

This progression towards autocracy has been common in the past decade in several countries, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a second term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the country’s top prosecutor and five justices on the constitutional court. The judges, who had provoked his ire by rejecting pandemic policies, were replaced by new appointees hand picked by Bukele.

The move mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of Hungary’s court system in 2018; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s judicial purges in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Experts say that the intimidation and verbal assaults in the US can be seen as attempts to undermine court autonomy in a system that provides no simple method for the president to remove judges Trump opposes.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at the university who has researched democratic decline in democracies, said the Trump administration had learned from the examples set by authoritarians abroad.

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

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

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has more power than this judicial branch, which is not how separation powers work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' sole safeguard is public trust in the authority 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 judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, academic of social science and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “authoritarian law” by the likes of the Hungarian and Putin, and has warned about rising threats to judges in the US.

She pointed to a series of termed “pizza doxxings” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the customer listed as a name, the son of Judge Esther Salas, who was murdered at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“Everyone understands what it means. ‘Your address is known. We’re coming for you,’” Scheppele said.

“Federal judges are guarded by the Secret Service and the Marshals Service. And these are dedicated law enforcement that are placed structurally inside the Department of Justice. And Pam Bondi has been spearheading the criticism on justices.”

Government Goals

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