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The US President rarely accepts guidance, particularly from foreign leaders who often seek to praise and compliment the American leader.

But, the Central American nation's strongman president Nayib Bukele has followed a distinct strategy by calling on the White House to emulate his actions in removing so-called “dishonest judges.”

His appeal for Trump to take action against the US judiciary also received support from Trump allies, including an X post by former supporter Elon Musk, who has in the past boosted the Salvadoran's demands to oust US judges.

Growing Threats to Court Autonomy

Analysts say that the leader's latest remarks come at a time of unmatched dangers to judicial independence and individual judges in the United States, and during a phase where the Trump administration is employing comparable authoritarian tactics employed by rulers in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, the Asian nation, and his native El Salvador to undermine government oversight.

Bukele's social media call recently was just the latest in a long series of taunts and claims he has leveled against the US's legal system, such as a spring assertion that the US was “facing a court takeover,” and his mockery of a court's ruling to stop removal operations sending accused illegal immigrants to his nation's brutal correctional facilities.

Criticism on Oregon Justice

The Salvadoran's demand for removal was also issued amid online criticism on the state's federal judge Karin Immergut by presidential advisor Stephen Miller, former AG Pam Bondi, Musk, and Trump himself in a latest media briefing.

The judge had issued restraining orders preventing the administration from mobilizing the national guard, first in Oregon then in the West Coast state. Trump has been pushing to dispatch soldiers into Portland, which the president has characterized as “battle-scarred” based on limited, non-violent protests outside the city's federal building.

Record of Attacking Justices

The advisor, the former AG, and the entrepreneur have a history of criticizing judges who have blocked Trump's executive orders or otherwise hindered the administration's political agenda. Prior to resuming office recently, Trump directed his followers against judges overseeing his legal cases, who were then deluged with threats and abuse.

Monitoring groups, police departments, and the justices have highlighted a increased atmosphere of risks and intimidation in the period since he re-entered the presidency.

Increasing Threat Statistics

According to data collected by the US Marshals Service, in 2025 through the end of September, there were over five hundred threats to 395 US justices, giving rise to more than eight hundred inquiries. 2025 has already surpassed 2022, and 2024, and is likely to top the previous year's record of 630 threats.

The dangers are not just happening at the federal level. Data from the university's Bridging Divides Initiative shows that there have been at least fifty-nine instances of threats, harassment, stalking, or violence committed against judges on the local level in the current year.

Analyst Insights on Root Causes

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

In spring, the watchdog group published a comprehensive report alleging that “malicious and reckless statements from Trump administration members and supporters align with escalating violent posts on social media.” It noted “a fifty-four percent increase in calls for impeachment and physical intimidation against judges across digital networks from January to February 2025, the initial period of the president's term.”

Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said: “The president's threats against judges have definitely fueled digital abuse at judges and calls for impeachment. Targeting the judiciary is one more step in Trump’s advance towards strongman rule.”

Global Strongman Playbook

This progression towards autocracy has been common in recent years in several nations, including by Bukele.

In 2021, immediately after commencing a new term despite legal bans, Bukele’s parliamentary loyalists voted to remove the nation's attorney general and five justices on the supreme court. The justices, who had provoked his ire by rejecting coronavirus measures, made way for replacements hand picked by the leader.

The action mirrored Viktor Orbán’s overhaul of the nation's judiciary several years back; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s court cleanups in 2019; and attempts at similar moves in Israel and the European country.

Undermining Court Autonomy

Analysts explain that the threats and rhetorical attacks in the US can be viewed as efforts to undermine judicial independence in a system that provides no simple method for the executive to remove judges the administration disapproves of.

Meghan Leonard, an associate professor at Illinois State University who has studied authoritarian backsliding in free nations, said the White House had taken cues from the models set by authoritarians abroad.

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

Pointing to examples such as Miller’s relentless claims of nearly limitless presidential authority, she added: “They directly attack the judiciary by stating over and over that it is not a equal branch in the government structure.

“They persist in redefine the debate by emphasizing their claim that the executive has greater authority than this other co-equal branch, which is not how checks and balances work.”

Leonard said: “Judges' sole safeguard is public trust in the legitimacy of their capacity to make those rulings. Individual threats on top of weakening trust in courts may make judges hesitate about decisions that go against the current administration, which is, of course, massively problematic for court oversight and for the political system.”

Coercion Methods

Scheppele, professor of sociology and global studies at the Ivy League school, has documented the use of “autocratic legalism” by the likes of Orbán and Putin, and has spoken out about escalating dangers to judges in the US.

She pointed to a wave of so-called “harassment deliveries” this year, in which judges have received unsolicited pizza deliveries with the recipient listed as Daniel Anderl, the child of Justice Salas, who was murdered at the judge’s home in several years ago by a gunman aiming at Salas.

“Everyone knows what it means. ‘Your address is known. You are a target,’” Scheppele said.

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

Administration Aims

Regarding the administration’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