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Donald Trump is not typically known for advice, especially from foreign leaders who frequently attempt to flatter and compliment the US president.

But, El Salvador's authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has adopted a distinct approach by calling on the Trump administration to follow his example in removing so-called “corrupt judges.”

His appeal for Trump to move against the American court system also received support from Trump allies, including an X post by one-time supporter Elon Musk, who has previously amplified the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Judicial Independence

Analysts note that the leader's recent intervention come at a time of unmatched threats to court autonomy and individual judges in the US, and during a period where the Trump administration is employing comparable strong-arm tactics employed by leaders in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, India, and his native the Central American country to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's online statement recently was one more in a string of provocations and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring assertion that the US was “experiencing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop removal operations transporting accused undocumented individuals to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Federal Judge

Bukele's demand for removal was also made amid online criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by White House aide Miller, attorney general Bondi, Elon Musk, and the president himself in a latest media briefing.

Immergut had ordered restraining orders blocking Trump from deploying the military reserves, initially in Oregon then in California. Trump has been pushing to send troops into the city, which the president has characterized as “war-ravaged” based on limited, peaceful demonstrations outside the urban federal building.

History of Targeting Judges

Miller, Bondi, and the entrepreneur have a history of attacking judges who have ruled against Trump's executive orders or otherwise impeded the administration's political agenda. Prior to returning to power this year, the president directed his supporters against judges presiding over his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and harassment.

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

Increasing Risk Data

According to information collected by the federal agency, in the current year through the end of September, there were 562 threats to 395 US justices, leading to more than eight hundred investigations. 2025 has already surpassed the first recorded year, and last year, and is likely to top the previous year's high of 630 threats.

The dangers are not only happening at the national level. Information by Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least 59 cases of threats, targeting, surveillance, or physical attacks directed against judges on the local level in 2025.

Analyst Insights 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 coincide with rising aggressive posts on social media.” It noted “a 54% increase in demands for impeachment and violent threats against judges across social media platforms from the first two months of this year, the initial period of the president's term.”

Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely driven digital abuse at judges and demands for ouster. Targeting the courts is another move in Trump’s march towards strongman rule.”

International Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been well-trodden in recent years in several nations, such as by the Salvadoran.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term in the face of legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to dismiss the nation's top prosecutor and several justices on the supreme court. The judges, who had angered him by rejecting coronavirus measures, were replaced by replacements hand picked by Bukele.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s remodeling of Hungary’s court system in 2018; the Turkish president's court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at comparable actions in the Middle Eastern state and the European country.

Undermining Judicial Independence

Experts explain that the intimidation and rhetorical attacks in the US can be seen as efforts to undermine court autonomy in a system that offers no easy way for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an academic at the university who has researched democratic decline in free nations, 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 enact any laws that would weaken the judiciary,” she said.

Pointing to instances such as the advisor's relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she noted: “They openly criticize the courts by stating repeatedly that it is not a co-equal branch in the separation of powers.

“They continue to reframe the discussion by emphasizing their argument that the president has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Justices' only protection is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of eroding trust in courts may make judges think twice about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for judicial review and for democracy.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of social science and international affairs at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the such as Orbán and the Russian, and has spoken out about escalating threats to judges in the US.

She highlighted a wave of termed “harassment deliveries” recently, in which judges have received unsolicited food orders with the recipient listed as a name, the child of Justice Salas, who was killed at the residence in 2020 by a assailant aiming at the judge.

“Everyone 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 federal police. And those are both specialized police units 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 objectives, Scheppele said that “removing a federal judge is highly not going to happen because it’s so hard to do. {Right now|Currently